Discrete-ordinates cost optimization of weight-dependent variance reduction techniques for Monte Carlo neutral particle transport

Doctor of PhilosophyDepartment of Mechanical and Nuclear EngineeringJ. Kenneth ShultisA method for deterministically calculating the population variances of Monte Carlo particle transport calculations involving weight-dependent variance reduction has been developed. This method solves a set of equations developed by Booth and Cashwell [1979], but extends them to consider the weight-window variance reduction technique. Furthermore, equations that calculate the duration of a single history in an MCNP5 (RSICC version 1.51) calculation have been developed as well. The calculation cost, defined as the inverse figure of merit, of a Monte Carlo calculation can be deterministically minimized from calculations of the expected variance and expected calculation time per history.The method has been applied to one- and two-dimensional multi-group and mixed material problems for optimization of weight-window lower bounds. With the adjoint (importance) function as a basis for optimization, an optimization mesh is superimposed on the geometry. Regions of weight-window lower bounds contained within the same optimization mesh element are optimized together with a scaling parameter. Using this additional optimization mesh restricts the size of the optimization problem, thereby eliminating the need to optimize each individual weight-window lower bound. Application of the optimization method to a one-dimensional problem, designed to replicate the variance reduction iron-window effect, obtains a gain in efficiency by a factor of 2 over standard deterministically generated weight windows. The gain in two dimensional problems varies. For a 2-D block problem and a 2-D two-legged duct problem, the efficiency gain is a factor of about 1.2. The top-hat problem sees an efficiency gain of 1.3, while a 2-D 3-legged duct problem sees an efficiency gain of only 1.05. This work represents the first attempt at deterministic optimization of Monte Carlo calculations with weight-dependent variance reduction. However, the current work is limited in the size of problems that can be run by the amount of computer memory available in computational systems. This limitation results primarily from the added discretization of the Monte Carlo particle weight required to perform the weight-dependent analyses. Alternate discretization methods for the Monte Carlo weight should be a topic of future investigation. Furthermore, the accuracy with which the MCNP5 calculation times can be calculated deterministically merits further study

Parthenon -- a performance portable block-structured adaptive mesh refinement framework

On the path to exascale the landscape of computer device architectures and corresponding programming models has become much more diverse. While various low-level performance portable programming models are available, support at the application level lacks behind. To address this issue, we present the performance portable block-structured adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) framework Parthenon, derived from the well-tested and widely used Athena++ astrophysical magnetohydrodynamics code, but generalized to serve as the foundation for a variety of downstream multi-physics codes. Parthenon adopts the Kokkos programming model, and provides various levels of abstractions from multi-dimensional variables, to packages defining and separating components, to launching of parallel compute kernels. Parthenon allocates all data in device memory to reduce data movement, supports the logical packing of variables and mesh blocks to reduce kernel launch overhead, and employs one-sided, asynchronous MPI calls to reduce communication overhead in multi-node simulations. Using a hydrodynamics miniapp, we demonstrate weak and strong scaling on various architectures including AMD and NVIDIA GPUs, Intel and AMD x86 CPUs, IBM Power9 CPUs, as well as Fujitsu A64FX CPUs. At the largest scale on Frontier (the first TOP500 exascale machine), the miniapp reaches a total of $1.7\times10^{13}$ zone-cycles/s on 9,216 nodes (73,728 logical GPUs) at ~92% weak scaling parallel efficiency (starting from a single node). In combination with being an open, collaborative project, this makes Parthenon an ideal framework to target exascale simulations in which the downstream developers can focus on their specific application rather than on the complexity of handling massively-parallel, device-accelerated AMR.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in IJHPCA, Codes available at https://github.com/parthenon-hpc-la

Analysis and characterization of perforated neutron detectors

Master of ScienceDepartment of Mechanical and Nuclear EngineeringJ. Kenneth ShultisPerforated neutron detectors suffer the unfortunate effect that their efficiency is a strong function of the direction of neutron incidence. It is found, by Monte Carlo simulation of many perforation shapes, that sinusoidal-type perforations greatly reduce the variation of detector efficiency. Detectors with rod-type perforations are modeled using a hybrid transport method linking the MCNP transport code and a specialized ion-transport code to calculate the probability that a neutron is detected. Channel, chevron, and sinusoidal perforations are modeled using other customized transport codes. Detector efficiency calculations are performed for neutrons incident at various polar and azimuthal angles. It is discovered that the efficiency losses of the detectors result from the decreasing solid angle subtended by the detector from the source and streaming through the detector at specific azimuthal angles. Detectors achieving an efficiency in excess of 10% and having a relatively flat ± 1% angular dependence in all azimuthal angles and polar angles between 0 and 60 degrees are predicted. Efficiencies up to 25% are achievable at the loss of directional independence. In addition to minimizing the directional dependence of the perforated detectors, the feasibility of developing a neutron detector for deployment in cargo containers to locate nuclear weapon pits is investigated using the MCNP transport code. The detector considered is a 7-mm diameter, 6LiF, rod-perforated detector surrounded in a cylinder of polyethylene. The optimum thicknesses of surrounding polyethylene, to maximize the response of the detector, is determined to be 10 cm of radial, 5 cm of front, and 5 cm of back polyethylene for end-on neutron incidence. Such a detector is predicted to produce a count rate between 12 and 15 cpm from a nuclear-weapon pit composed of 90% 239Pu and 10% 240Pu at a distance of 3 m. Side incidence is also considered, and the optimum moderator dimensions are 8 cm of radial, 10 cm of front, and 10 cm of back polyethylene that produce approximately the same count rate

A weighted adjoint-source for weight-window generation by means of a linear tally combination

A new importance estimation technique has been developed that allows weight-window optimization for a linear combination of tallies. This technique has been implemented in a local version of MCNP and effectively weights the adjoint source term for each tally in the combination. Optimizing weight window parameters for the linear tally combination allows the user to optimize weight windows for multiple regions at once. In this work, we present our results of solutions to an analytic three-tally-region test problem and a flux calculation on a 100,000 voxel oil-well logging tool problem

Measurements of the Prompt Fission Neutron Spectrum at LANSCE: The Chi-Nu Experiment

The goal of the Chi-Nu experiment at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center is to measure the prompt fission neutron spectra from major actinides using a double time-of-flight method with a pulsed, white incoming neutron source. Fission events are detected with a parallel-plate avalanche counter and outgoing neutrons are detected with either a 6Li-glass or liquid scintillator detector array for low- or high-energy neutrons, respectively. A detector response matrix for the interaction of neutrons with the experimental environment for neutrons measured with the Chi-Nu 6Li-glass detector array has been calculated to obtain a full understanding of the measured Chi-Nu data and also to allow for nearly instantaneous production of simulated Chi-Nu data spectra. Prompt fission neutron spectra corresponding to 19 incoming neutron energy ranges from 0.7-20 MeV have been extracted using the ratio-of-ratios method with Chi-Nu 6Li-glass data on the neutron-induced fission of 235U

Measurements of the Prompt Fission Neutron Spectrum at LANSCE: The Chi-Nu Experiment

The goal of the Chi-Nu experiment at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center is to measure the prompt fission neutron spectra from major actinides using a double time-of-flight method with a pulsed, white incoming neutron source. Fission events are detected with a parallel-plate avalanche counter and outgoing neutrons are detected with either a 6Li-glass or liquid scintillator detector array for low- or high-energy neutrons, respectively. A detector response matrix for the interaction of neutrons with the experimental environment for neutrons measured with the Chi-Nu 6Li-glass detector array has been calculated to obtain a full understanding of the measured Chi-Nu data and also to allow for nearly instantaneous production of simulated Chi-Nu data spectra. Prompt fission neutron spectra corresponding to 19 incoming neutron energy ranges from 0.7-20 MeV have been extracted using the ratio-of-ratios method with Chi-Nu 6Li-glass data on the neutron-induced fission of 235U