A perspective on coupled multiscale simulation and validation in nuclear materials
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Introduction Developing materials for nuclear applications is an endeavor recognized for formidable scientific challenges leading to significant societal benefits. It is also a field where the connection between the “push” of fundamental science to higher length scales and the “pull” of applied technology from lower length scales is notoriously difficult. The fundamental scientific challenges in materials research for advanced nuclear energy systems have been recently prioritized; see, for example, the DOE-BES (Department of Energy-Basic Energy Sciences) workshop report in 20061 and a collection of overviews.2–5 Briefly they may be stated as: “Understand, model, and control chemical and physical phenomena in multi-component systems across multiple length/time scales by developing mechanismbased materials models for use in Integrated Performance and Safety Codes validated for temperatures to 1000°C and radiation doses to hundreds of displacements per atom.”1 The statement inherently requires bridging the so-called “valley of death,” or gap between the micro- and the macroscales. It is also a grand
challenge in the sense of convincing the regulators and industry to regard the solutions as worthy of significant investment. In 2008, the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) began development of the Multiphysics Object Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) framework for the rapid development of massively parallel simulation tools.6 MOOSE has matured to include many advanced capabilities, including the ability to perform coupled multiscale simulations7 and full reactor core analysis.8 In 2010, the first Energy Innovation Hub, an alliance of national laboratories, universities, and the nuclear power industry in the United States, was established by the US DOE with the goal of creating a predictive capability for a full virtual nuclear reactor.9 Among the industrial challenge problems targeted by this Hub, the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL), are the consequences of nuclear corrosion deposits, known as CRUD (Chalk River unidentified deposits, after the location of its first discovery, Chalk River, Canada).10 (Note: The structure and effects of CRUD will be discussed in greater detail in the next section.)
M.P. Short, MIT, Cambridge, MA; [email protected] D. Gaston, Idaho National Laboratory; [email protected] C.R. Stanek, Materials Science and Technology Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory; [email protected] S. Yip, MIT, Cambridge, MA; [email protected] DOI: 10.1557/mrs.2013.315
© 2014 Materials Research Society
MRS BULLETIN • VOLUME 39 • JANUARY 2014 • www.mrs.org/bulletin
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A PERSPECTIVE ON COUPLED MULTISCALE SIMULATION AND VALIDATION IN NUCLEAR MATERIALS
A MOOSE-based simulation tool, known as MAMBA-BDM* (materials performance and optimization advanced materials/boron analyzerboron deposition model),11 was developed as part of CASL efforts to model the micro/ mesoscale evolution of CRUD. In this perspective, we examine two aspects of the ongoing study of CRUD to identify the elements that illu
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