Agustin Abarca Gimenez
Publications
- BWR core thermal–hydraulic uncertainty and sensitivity analysis with improved bypass modeling features , Nuclear Engineering and Design (2025)
- Development of Serpent/CTF External Coupling for the OECD/NEA TVA-WB1 Benchmark Activities , Nuclear Science and Engineering (2025)
- Development of an efficient and improved core thermal-hydraulics predictive capability for fast reactors: Summary of research and development activities at the North Carolina state University , Nuclear Engineering and Design (2023)
- CTF-PARCS Core Multi-Physics Computational Framework for Efficient LWR Steady-State, Depletion and Transient Uncertainty Quantification , Energies (2022)
- Incorporation and testing of refrigerant fluids (R-134a) in the subchannel analysis code CTF (COBRA-TF) , Progress in Nuclear Energy (2021)
- A multi-scale and multi-physics simulation methodology with the state-of-the-art tools for safety analysis in Light Water Reactors applied to a Turbine Trip scenario (Part II) , Nuclear Engineering and Design (2019)
- A multi-scale and multi-physics simulation methodology with the state-of-the-art tools for safety analysis in light water reactors applied to a turbine trip scenario (PART I) , Nuclear Engineering and Design (2019)
Grants
With multiple non-water-cooled reactor technologies intended for fleet wide deployment throughout the 2030s, extension of the thermal-hydraulic transient codes to model the behavior of various non-aqueous coolants like helium, sodium, or Fl and Cl salts would provide a platform for training future operators. It is also desirable to have sensitivity analysis interface. This will support NCSU and the rest of the industry in developing promising young operators for the future fleet. Two research lines has been identified for the development of this modeling and simulation capacity: 1) The extension of Dr. Doster developed and maintained thermal hydraulic transient code. 2) Develop our own thermal-hydraulic advance reactor models by taking advantage of The Transient Simulation Framework of Reconfigurable Modules (TRANSFORM) component library crated using the Modelica programing language .
Multi-physics modeling and simulation (M&S) is a powerful tool to analyze design and beyond design transients in light water reactors (LWR). The simulation tools resulting from the coupling of thermal-hydraulics system codes and nodal neutron kinetics codes are usually used for some of the reactor license transients. In this project NC State University will provide support to Kernkraftwerk Leibstadt AG (KKL) for model development, validation and transient analysis with the coupled system thermal-hydraulic simulation code TRACE and the core simulator S3K. NC State will help KKL to adapt their current TRACE patch 3 models to TRACE path 5, will provide support in the Linux compilation of the TRACE-S3K coupled code and running some of the targeted transient scenarios such as the cycle 18 turbine trip (c18 TT). As a secondary objective, NC State will develop models and cross sections in PMAX format for the use its multi-physics multi-scale platform to simulative the proposed transients. This will help NC State with the continuous goal development, verification, and validation goal of TRACE-CTF-PARCS/NEM multi-physics framework.