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KRAKEN (Package NEA-1924)

Abstract

Kraken is a computational framework for reactor analysis consisting of modular solvers for the different physics phenomena in the reactor core and a multi-physics driver package that handles the coupled solution flow. The framework is being developed for modelling nuclear reactors in stationary, operating cycle and transient analyses.

Kraken reactor analysis framework includes the following software components:

  • The Ants nodal neutronics program.
  • The Kharon thermal hydraulics solver.
  • The libFluid fluid properties library.
  • The SuperFINIX fuel behaviour manager program.
  • The FINIX fuel performance code.
  • The Cerberus multi-physics driver package.
  • The Cetus multi-physics reactor simulator package.
  • The KrakenTools package for pre- and post-processing in the Kraken framework.
  • The Serpent Monte Carlo code

The Ants nodal neutronics program uses a combination of the analytic function expansion nodal method (AFEN) and flux expansion nodal method (FENM) to solve the multi group neutron diffusion equation. Kharon solves two phase thermal hydraulics in a time independent manner using the porous medium approach in closed channels. SuperFINIX distributes the fuel behaviour solution work to the necessary number of individual FINIX solvers. FINIX itself is based on a traditional 1.5-dimensional fuel performance code philosophy. The Cerberus multi-physics driver package for Python 3 communicates with the individual solvers using sockets, while offering a high-level Python API for each solver and their fields.

License

Non-commercial license

The NEA Data Bank offers a single-user license that does not include commercial applications. Please read the terms of the license carefully and refer to the VTT website for more practical information.

References

Citation

Leppänen, J., et al. (2015) "Current Status and On-Going Development of VTT’s Kraken Core Physics Computational Framework." Energies 2022, 15(3), 876. DOI:10.3390/en15030876

A complete description of the project is found at the KRAKEN website

Training materials

A collection of resources are available on the KRAKEN Wiki, including a tutorial guide.

The NEA is working with the authors and partners on the creation of a new training course for KRAKEN. You can find more information on the currently scheduled events online here.