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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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DOE OSTI2025

Advanced Transmission Technologies – GETs and HPCs Session 2: Advanced Power Flow Control and Transmission Topology Optimization

The INL TADA GETs Cohort Session 2, held on November 7, 2025, conducted in collaboration with ScottMadden, focused on two core Advanced Transmission Technologies (ATTs): Advanced Power Flow Control (APFC) and Transmission Topology Optimization (TTO). These technologies are pivotal in enhancing grid flexibility, reliability, and cybersecurity resilience. APFC, particularly through modular FACTS devices like Modular Static Synchronous Series Compensators (M-SSSCs), enables dynamic voltage injection to reroute power flows. The session highlighted the deployment benefits of APFC, such as rapid installation, minimal civil works, and re-deployability. Regulatory drivers like FERC Order 2023 mandate the inclusion of Grid-Enhancing Technologies (GETs) in interconnection studies. Case studies from Central Hudson, CAISO, and National Grid (UK) demonstrated APFC’s effectiveness in congestion relief and cost savings. The session also addressed cybersecurity concerns, including firmware vulnerabilities, SCADA integration risks, and supply chain dependencies. Participants engaged in interactive exercises to rank cybersecurity and supply chain risks, emphasizing the need for robust digital assurance strategies. TTO involves software-based reconfiguration of transmission networks to optimize power flow without new infrastructure. The session showcased its operational value, with examples from SPP, PJM, and MISO showing significant congestion cost reductions. Cybersecurity vulnerabilities were discussed, particularly in API security and software supply chains, referencing incidents like SolarWinds and attacks on Danish utilities. Digital assurance exercises explored worst-case scenarios, attack paths, and mitigation responsibilities between vendors and utilities. Reliability challenges such as algorithm stability, vendor dependency, and operator trust were also examined. Cross-cutting themes emphasized the importance of digital assurance tools, including Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs) and hardware-in-loop testing. Human performance, training, and operational confidence were identified as critical enablers of technology adoption. The session concluded with a preview of Session 3, which will focus on High Performance Conductors (HPCs) and risk-based cybersecurity tools. Session 2 of 3.

24 - POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Sensitivity Analysis for the Component Design App: Analysis of Success Assured Data

A new tool has been developed to perform variance-based global sensitivity analysis (VBGSA) on data from a set-based concurrent engineering software called Success Assured (SA). The tool is part of a digital component design app, which is currently in production as an Accelerated Digital Engineering Pathfinder at Sandia National Laboratories. When working with complex digital models, it is important to understand relationships between inputs and outputs, i.e., how “sensitive” model outputs are to changes in model inputs. After extensive research and trials of various sensitivity analysis methods, it was determined that estimation of Sobol’ indices for VBGSA with Monte Carlo simulation, paired with simple surrogate models, produces the best results for SA data. This tool increases understanding of SA models and streamlines the creation of SA datasets. This report details the methodology and implementation of this sensitivity analysis tool so others can understand it and implement it.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Status of SPCA-ANL Software Development, Software Quality Assurance, and Application (FY2025)

SPCA-ANL is a simulation tool used to perform deterministic analyses of sodium spray and pool fires. Development of the SPCA-II (Spray Pool Combustion Analysis) code began in the mid- 1980s as part of the Clinch River Breeder Reactor (CRBR) Project. At that time, development of SPCA-II, which was led by Rockwell International, was focused on treatment of large-scale sodium spray, stream, and pool fires that were anticipated to be prototypic of the steam generator building cells in CRBR. Under more recent DOE NE programmatic activities, the SPCA-II code was recovered from existing literature and underwent minor modifications to generate a stable executable. This recovered version of the code was not formally released. As part of the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) Project in the 2010s, the SPCA-II code underwent key modifications to improve stability, address modeling deficiencies, improve consistency between the code manual and software, and address numerous bugs. At this point, SPCA-II was renamed SPCA-ANL. Given that SPCA-II served as the original basis for SPCA-ANL, both codes share an integrated history. Following termination of the VTR Project, the DOE NE Fast Reactor Program resumed support of the software with the goal of building and maintaining software infrastructure that can enable commercial-grade dedication of SPCA-ANL by an end user. Version 1.0, the first external release of SPCA-ANL, was generated in June 2024. This report summarizes the development and maintenance activities completed for SPCAANL in FY2025. This year’s work was focused on improving quality and usability of the code. The provisional Software Quality Assurance (SQA) program has been established and was used to test the procedures for infrastructure improvements, code development, bug fixes, and code releases, as described in the following sections of this report. A code Version 1.0.1 was released in FY25, as described in Chapter 4.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2026

Watching the Watchers with Verified Formal-Assurance Tools (Abbreviated Final Report)

The “Watching the Watchers” project studied the problem of establishing assurance cases for tools that are used to assure other things. Specifically, we were interested in understanding the tools and techniques one could apply to software to build an assurance case to evaluate their applicability, difficulty, level of assurance provided, and scalability. To do so we chose a set of use cases of relevance to LLNL and our various DOE and non-DOE partners and developed demonstrators to perform this evaluation. Our key focal point was around additive manufacturing problems and assurance gaps that we identified in the additive manufacturing workflow from start to completion. We also explored other areas related to AI, data analysis, and concurrent programming. Follow-on research is planned to take our prototypes from this project and adapt and mature them to fit LLNL mission applications.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2024

FORCE Regression Testing

Via programs including the Light Water Reactor Sustainability and Integrated Energy Systems, the U.S. Department of Energy has invested in the Framework for Optimization of ResourCes and Economics (FORCE) software framework (Idaho National Laboratory 2024a) for the technical and economic analysis of nuclear-integrated energy systems (IES). Nuclear IES expand the use of nuclear from traditional baseload electricity generation to a flexible and adaptive source of combined heat and power. Nuclear heat can be used in the production of a variety of energy currencies such as hydrogen and ammonia as well as other heat applications including water desalination and district heating. FORCE is designed with the intent to provide interconnected analysis tools that enable the accurate technical and economic assessment of specific nuclear IES configurations for individual energy markets. FORCE consists of three main analysis pathways: HYBRID (Idaho National Laboratory 2024b), which contains high-resolution physical models for IES; Holistic Energy Resource Optimization Network (HERON) (Idaho National Laboratory 2024c), which analyzes IES long-term economic viability; and Optimization of Real-time Capacity Allocation (ORCA) (Idaho National Laboratory 2024d), designed for real-time control of IES via digital twins and optimal decision making, including autonomous and remote operation research. Development of the FORCE ecosystem is guided by three pillars: capability, which assures that the computational requirements of IES analysis are met by the software tools; reliability, which provides for consistent code performance and expected behaviors; and accessibility, which lowers the barrier to entry for using the software and accelerates analysis by users beyond the FORCE primary developers. Reliability of the FORCE ecosystem is established according to the American Nuclear Society?s Nuclear Quality Assurance (NQA-1) program [American Society of Mechanical Engineers 1982], with specific levels of software quality assurance (SQA) within NQA-1 applied to each software tool in FORCE. As the tools within FORCE have matured, some integration algorithms to accurately connect the software tools for holistic analysis have been developed and deployed within the FORCE software repository. In accordance with NQA-1 standards, regression tests are required to guarantee the software performs consistently even when new capabilities are added to the software. In this report, we document the deployment of both unit tests, which test the consistent behavior of small pieces of the FORCE code base, as well as integration tests, which test the consistent performance of full use cases for the FORCE integration algorithms. We further document the encapsulation of these tests within a test harness, which collectively checks for each successful test completion on demand. Finally, we document the automation of the test harness using GitHub Actions [GitHub 2024], which require all tests succeed before any new capability or other changes can be added to the FORCE integration software

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Software Quality Assurance for the MOOSE-Based Open-Source Multiphysics Code Cardinal - An Expanded CI Testing Suite

Cardinal is a wrapping of the GPU-oriented spectral element Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code NekRS and the Monte Carlo particle transport code OpenMC within the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE). Cardinal provides high-resolution thermal-hydraulics and/or radiation transport feedback to MOOSE multiphysics simulations. Multiphysics feedback is implemented in a geometry-agnostic manner which eliminates the need for rigid one-to-one mappings. A generic data transfer implementation also allows NekRS and OpenMC to couple to any MOOSE application, enabling a broad set of multiphysics capabilities. Cardinal simulations can also leverage combinations of MPI, OpenMP, and GPU resources. Cardinal continuous development and improvement efforts have led to the software being considered as a high-fidelity design and licensing tool for key areas of nuclear reactor relevant physics, including neutron transport, fluid flow, heat transfer, and mechanical processes. The fast development and expansion of the software from a pure R&D framework towards its application in the nuclear industry and regulation require a focus on developing, enhancing and, maintaining Cardinal’s software quality through strict adherence to a Software Quality Assurance (SQA) framework and SQA program. To facilitate compliance with SQA standards, the Cardinal SQA Program has been initiated during Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23). During the development of the Cardinal SQA Program, multiple gaps have been identified. These gaps are primarily related to model verification and code pedigree as they relate to the use of Cardinal as a safety analysis tool. These gaps have been captured in a report published in 2023. A second report highlighted the progress made during Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) and described Argonne’s effort to document and integrate software verification within Cardinal’s software development process. This report documents a snapshot of the verification test cases currently available for Cardinal and NekRS in their assimilation into a Continuous Integration (CI) platform. Following the CI practice permits the integrating of source code changes frequently and ensuring that the integrated codebase clears the verification testing for the software. It should be noted that the SQA program itself, including the program plans, procedures, configuration management, and testing strategies, need to be developed in a future step of this task.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Progress Towards NQA-1 for Cardinal in FY25

Cardinal is a wrapping of the GPU-oriented spectral element Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code NekRS and the Monte Carlo particle transport code OpenMC within the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE). Cardinal provides high-resolution thermal-hydraulics and/or radiation transport feedback to MOOSE multiphysics simulations. Multiphysics feedback is implemented in a geometry-agnostic manner which eliminates the need for rigid one-to-one mappings. A generic data transfer implementation also allows NekRS and OpenMC to couple to any MOOSE application, enabling a broad set of multiphysics capabilities. Cardinal simulations can also leverage combinations of MPI, OpenMP, and GPU resources. Cardinal continuous development and improvement efforts have led to the software being considered as a high-fidelity design and licensing tool for key areas of nuclear reactor relevant physics, including neutron transport, fluid flow, heat transfer, and mechanical processes. The fast development and expansion of the software from a pure R&D framework towards its application in the nuclear industry and regulation require a focus on developing, enhancing,and maintaining Cardinal’s software quality through strict adherence to a Software Quality Assurance (SQA) framework and SQA program. To facilitate compliance with SQA standards, the Cardinal SQA Program was initiated during Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23). During the development of the Cardinal SQA Program, multiple gaps have been identified. These gaps are primarily related to model verification and code pedigree as they relate to the use of Cardinal as an analysis tool. These gaps were captured in a report published in 2023. A second report highlighted the progress made during Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) and described Argonne’s effort to document and integrate software verification within Cardinal’s software development process. This report documents the progress made towards NQA-1 for Cardinal in the Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25). All cases in the expanded Continuous Integration (CI) suite of NekRS are included in this report which test the solvers and modules available in NekRS exhaustively. The NekRS tests are integrated with the Cardinal CI suite and made available in publicly accessible Github documentation. Following the CI practice permits integrating of source code changes frequently and ensuring that the integrated codebase clears the verification testing for the software. Also in this report is a brief overview of the development of the Cardinal Software Quality Assurance Plan (SQAP) that was done in FY25, though it should be noted that the rest of the documentation for the SQA program needs to be developed in a future step of this task.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

FENIX: Towards a Fully Integrated Multiphysics Framework for Plasma Facing Component Modeling

Computational tools have a crucial role to play in accelerating the deployment of fusion as a clean, reliable, abundant, and sustainable energy source. Multiphysics, high-fidelity simulation capabilities can help model, study, and predict intricate interactions between materials performance, plasma exposure, neutron irradiation, and engineering processes. As such, they can assist in the resolution of scientific and engineering challenges underpinning design, construction, and commission of fusion power plants. To address these needs, ongoing efforts are leveraging the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) framework and delivering new computational tools for the fusion community. These tools inherit crucial attributes from MOOSE. They are open-source, modular, integrated with nuclear industry-standard software quality assurance processes, and enable multiphysics, multi-fidelity, fully integrated, zero- to three-dimensional, and massively parallel simulations. After a short overview of these capabilities, we will present the development of Fusion ENergy Integrated multiphys-X (FENIX), a MOOSE-based application designed to enable plasma facing component design and performance evaluation. Throughout their lifetime, plasma facing components are exposed to extreme thermal loads, repeated thermal shocks, and irradiation by plasma ions, neutral particles, and high-energy neutrons. Consequently, designing a plasma facing component with acceptable lifetime degradation is extremely challenging. FENIX aims to model the multiphysics environment in which plasma facing components evolve to accelerate their design studies. To that end, FENIX couples existing MOOSE capabilities such as heat transfer, thermomechanics, and thermal hydraulics, with tritium transport via the MOOSE-based Tritium Migration Analysis Program, Version 8 (TMAP8), with neutronics via the MOOSE-based high-fidelity neutron-photon transport and fluid dynamics code Cardinal, and finally with Particle-in-Cell plasma simulation capabilities being developed in this project. In this study, we present the current FENIX capabilities and preliminary results of its application to model the Tritium Plasma Experiment set up at Idaho National Laboratory.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Data from: "Towards CONUS-Wide ML-Augmented Conceptually-Interpretable Modeling of Catchment-Scale Precipitation-Storage-Runoff Dynamics"

This data package was generated to support the manuscript “Towards CONUS-Wide Machine Learning-Augmented Conceptually Interpretable Modeling of Catchment-Scale Precipitation-Storage-Runoff Dynamics.” It provides input files, model outputs, plotting data, scripts, notebooks, and documentation used to develop, evaluate, and reproduce Mass-Conserving Perceptron (MCP)-based hydrologic modeling experiments across 513 selected Catchment Attributes and Meteorology for Large-sample Studies in the United States (CAMELS-US) basins. The files are organized by modeling component and analysis purpose, including rainfall–runoff experiments, snow module experiments, coupled hydrologic-snow experiments, Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) benchmark results, model skill metrics, initialization and epoch records, cell-state normalization files, Akaike Information Criterion (AIC)-based model comparison files, and data used to generate manuscript figures. Tabular files can be opened using standard spreadsheet software or Python/R data-analysis tools. Python scripts, Jupyter notebooks, and selected MATLAB scripts are included for model execution, postprocessing, plotting, and statistical analysis. Quality assurance and quality control were conducted through the source-data selection and modeling workflow. Meteorological forcing, streamflow, and static catchment attributes were derived from the CAMELS-US dataset, and snow water equivalent data were derived from the University of Arizona (UA) Snow Water Equivalent dataset. Selected basins and time periods were screened during the associated research workflow to avoid missing observations or poor-quality cases. Static geospatial features were processed primarily using Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS) and Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL) workflows. Additional details are provided in the associated manuscript and documentation.

ESS-DIVE CSV File Formatting Guidelines Reporting ↗
DOE OSTI2024

ORNL Package Testing Program Software Quality Assurance Plan

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Package Testing Program (PTP) uses commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software in performing data collection of thermal test results for package designs that contain radioactive materials. Specifically, this software is used to collect temperature data from the furnace, packages, and ambient air to prepare and execute the thermal test specified in 10 CFR 71.73, “Thermal Test.” This software quality assurance (SQA) plan sets forth the guidelines, standards, and procedures that shall be used to provide SQA for PTP software applications. This is a living document that will be maintained for the lifecycle of the PTP program. The SQA plan follows the requirements set forth in ORNL Standards Based Management System (SBMS): Information Technology; Subject Area: Software Quality Assurance. When applicable to the requirements as described in ORNL SBMS, Software Quality Assurance, the software shall be listed in the ORNL Software Registration System (SRS). Exemptions to this SBMS are COTS and firmware that are not modified; spreadsheet applications and personal productivity tools that do not have a utility or safety application, research applications, legacy software, system software, vendor-supplied software used to interface with the vendor’s services, software used within the organization to facilitate processing or management of information, and software developed for applications not specific to the US Department of Energy (DOE).

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Providing Experimental Infrastructure for Accelerating Advanced Reactor Demonstrations through the National Reactor Innovation Center

A suite of experimental infrastructure projects has been developed by the National Reactor Innovation Center to accelerate advanced reactor demonstrations and facilitate their development, addressing crucial gaps in data, materials characterization, and modeling. First, the Molten Salt Thermophysical Examination Capability (MSTEC) provides a specialized platform for post-irradiation characterization of molten salt reactor fuel, coolant salts, and structural materials, essential for supporting the design and operation of advanced reactors and future commercial molten salt reactor development and licensing. The Virtual Test Bed (VTB) complements these efforts by leveraging advanced modeling and simulation tools to evaluate reactor performance and safety. Serving as a library of reference models, the VTB offers a database of multiphysics reactor models, facilitating rapid safety evaluations and includes continuous software quality assurance, crucial for accelerating deployment while maintaining reliability. Additionally, the Helium Component Test Facility (HeCTF) addresses the need for high-temperature helium-cooled reactor component testing. As the first-of-its-kind facility in the United States, HeCTF emulates high-temperature gas reactor conditions, reducing time and cost associated with component validation, thereby accelerating reactor development. Finally, In-cell Thermal Creep Frames provide a unique solution for obtaining thermal creep data from irradiated materials, critical for materials qualification and licensing. Developed by the National Reactor Innovation Center, these compact frames enable the examination of previously irradiated materials, overcoming traditional limitations and enhancing the understanding of mechanical properties crucial for reactor development. Collectively, these experimental infrastructure projects form a comprehensive framework aimed at expediting advanced reactor demonstrations, fostering innovation, and ensuring the viability of next-generation nuclear energy solutions.

22 - GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Nuclear Materials Packaging, Transportation, and Systems Analysis Group Software Quality Assurance Plan: ANSYS Mechanical Finite Element Analysis Software Version 2023R1

ANSYS Inc. develops and markets engineering simulation software and services used in the aerospace, automotive, manufacturing, electronics, biomedical, energy, defense, and many other industries. ANSYS is dedicated to engineering simulation and is the world’s leading software provider. ANSYS was founded in 1970 and is headquartered in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. ANSYS provides an engineering analysis tool combining structural, thermal, computational fluid dynamics, acoustic, and electromagnetic simulation capabilities. ANSYS has two main programs, which use the same solvers: (1) Mechanical APDL (ANSYS Design Parametric Language), a Fortran-based coding platform, and (2) ANSYS Workbench, which uses a graphical user interface to aid in finite element analysis implementation. This plan covers both APDL and Workbench. The ANSYS computer program is a large-scale, multipurpose finite element program that can be used to solve several classes of engineering analyses. The analysis capabilities of ANSYS include the ability to solve static and dynamic structural analyses, steady-state and transient heat transfer problems, mode-frequency and buckling eigenvalue problems, static or time-varying magnetic analyses, and various types of field and coupled-field applications. The program contains many special features that allow nonlinearities or secondary effects such as plasticity, large strain, hyperelasticity, creep, swelling, large deflections, contact, stress stiffening, temperature dependency, material anisotropy, and radiation to be included in the solution. As ANSYS has been developed, other special capabilities such as substructuring, submodeling, random vibration, kinetostatics, kinetodynamics, free convection fluid analysis, acoustics, magnetics, piezoelectrics, coupled-field analysis, and design optimization have been added to the program. These capabilities contribute further to making ANSYS a multipurpose analysis tool for varied engineering disciplines. The ANSYS program has been in commercial use for over 50 years and has been used extensively in the aerospace, automotive, construction, electronic, energy services, manufacturing, nuclear, plastics, oil, and steel industries. Additionally, many consulting firms and hundreds of universities have used ANSYS for analysis, research, and educational purposes. ANSYS is recognized worldwide as one of the most widely used and capable programs of its type. Ansys design analysis software is the first created within a quality system with ISO 9001 certification, the internationally accepted quality standard. Product development, testing, maintenance and support processes also meet the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission's quality requirements, as they have for nearly four decades. The Quality Assurance Service Agreement is suitable for the customers working in the nuclear industry who need to meet specific federal regulations including 10CRF50 Appendix B and provisions of 10CFR21. ANSYS has retained its original International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001 accreditation certificate since1995-05-04, It’s current certificate is valid until 2027-05-29.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Developing Multiphysics, Integrated, High-Fidelity, Massively Parallel Computational Capabilities for Fusion Applications Using MOOSE

As the need for fusion as a clean, sustainable, and abundant energy source grows internationally, so does the need for multiphysics, computational tools to model, study, and predict the complex interactions between plasma, materials, and engineering processes. These tools have a crucial role to play in solving scientific and engineering challenges and accelerating fusion energy deployment. To address these needs, modeling capabilities should enable massively parallel, multiphysics, fully integrated high-fidelity simulations of fusion systems. Additional attributes, such as being open source and modular while maintaining high software quality assurance standards will maximize impact by ensuring accessibility for all and wide acceptance, rapid expansion and development, as well as reliability, efficiency, and robustness. In this paper, we describe how the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) framework, which has a track record of success in the fission space thanks to the attributes listed above, can be leveraged in the fusion energy field. We highlight key successes of the MOOSE application in the fission space and describe how MOOSE has been and is being applied to fusion applications in the United States---e.g., Tritium Migration Analysis Program, version 8 (TMAP8), MOOSE Fusion Module, Fusion ENergy Integrated multiphys-X (FENIX)---and the United Kingdom---e.g., AURORA, Achlys, Apollo. These efforts aim to establish a suite of tools that can be further extended to accelerate fusion energy deployment.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

New developments and verification of fusion blanket simulation capabilities in the MOOSE framework

Multiphysics modeling capabilities have a crucial role to play in the accelerated deployment of fusion energy. To that end, we developed new multiphysics fusion blanket simulation capabilities in the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE). Firstly, we expanded on the existing capabilities of the previously published work, by coupling 3D tritium transport modeling capabilities using the Tritium Migration Analysis Program, version 8 (TMAP8) to an existing tool including thermal hydraulics, fully three-dimensional (3D) heat transfer, and loosely coupled neutronics analysis. Secondly, we performed a thorough verification of the new capabilities and increased testing code coverage to meet MOOSE’s software quality standards. The MOOSE framework follows a strict software quality assurance plan to be Nuclear Quality Assurance, Level 1 compliant. The new multiphysics fusion blanket simulation capabilities are now held to the same standard. Thirdly, to demonstrate MOOSE’s new fusion blanket modeling capabilities, we performed a fully integrated, multiphysics simulation of a 3D solid ceramic breeder blanket design. This proof-of-concept simulation provides the temperature and tritium distribution across the blanket. In conclusion, the combined efforts towards software quality and the development of multiphysics coupling capabilities provide an effective and reliable framework for modeling solid ceramic fusion blankets using MOOSE.

modeling and simulation↗
DOE OSTI2024

Software Quality Assurance Plan ANSYS LSDYNA Version 2023R1

ANSYS Inc. develops and markets engineering simulation software and services used in the aerospace, automotive, manufacturing, electronics, biomedical, energy, defense, and many other industries. ANSYS is dedicated to engineering simulation and is the world’s leading software provider. ANSYS was founded in 1970 and is headquartered in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. ANSYS provides an engineering analysis tool combining structural, thermal, computational fluid dynamics, acoustic and electromagnetic simulation capabilities. ANSYS LS-DYNA is the most used explicit simulation program capable of simulating the response of materials to short periods of severe loading. Its many elements, contact formulations, material models, and other controls can be used to simulate complex models with control over all the details of the problem. ANSYS LS-DYNA has a vast array of capabilities to simulate extreme deformation problems using its explicit solver. Engineers can tackle simulations involving material failure and look at how the failure progresses through a part or through a system. Models with large amounts of parts or surfaces interacting with each other are also easily handled, and the interactions and load passing between complex behaviors are modeled accurately. Using computers with higher numbers of CPU cores can drastically reduce solution times. In addition, many consulting firms and hundreds of universities use ANSYS for analysis, research, and educational purposes. ANSYS is recognized worldwide as one of the most widely used and capable programs of its type. ANSYS has successfully passed over 100 customer quality system audits against American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) NQA-1 and 10 CFR Part 50, Appendix B, since the company was founded, over 60 of which have been since 1997. ANSYS has successfully passed over 100 International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001 assessments. ANSYS design analysis software is the first created within a quality system with ISO 9001 certification, which is the internationally accepted quality standard. Product development, testing, maintenance, and support processes also meet the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) quality requirements, as they have for nearly four decades. ANSYS staff perform more than 60,000 software verification tests before releasing each new product. ASME NQA-1-2012 (Subpart 2.7 is specific to software) is the industry- and NRC-accepted approach (consensus standard) for meeting 10 CFR Part 50, Appendix B, requirements.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2024

A Generalized approach to the operationalization of Software Quality Models

Comprehensive measures of quality are a research imperative, yet the development of software quality models is a wicked problem. Definitive solutions do not exist and quality is subjective at its most abstract. Definitional measures of quality are contingent on a domain, and even within a domain, the choice of representative characteristics to decompose quality is subjective. Thus, the operationalization of quality models brings even more challenges. A promising approach to quality modeling is the use of hierarchies to represent characteristics, where lower levels of the hierarchy represent concepts closer to real-world observations. Building upon prior hierarchical modeling approaches, we developed the Platform for Investigative software Quality Understanding and Evaluation (PIQUE). PIQUE surmounts several quality modeling challenges because it allows modelers to instantiate abstract hierarchical models in any domain by leveraging organizational tools tailored to their specific contexts. Here, we introduce PIQUE; exemplify its utility with two practical use cases; address challenges associated with parameterizing a PIQUE model; and describe algorithmic techniques that tackle normalization, aggregation, and interpolation of measurements.

Data aggregation↗
DOE OSTI2025

MOOSE-based Tritium Migration Analysis Program, Version 8 (TMAP8) for advanced open-source tritium transport and fuel cycle modeling

Tritium management is critical for the safety, sustainability, and economics of fusion energy systems, and advanced and reliable modeling tools help accelerate the development of tritium technologies. This paper presents the Tritium Migration Analysis Program, Version 8 (TMAP8), an open-source, MOOSE-based application developed to provide state-of-the-art tritium transport and fuel cycle modeling capabilities. TMAP8 aims to expand the capabilities of previous versions (i.e., TMAP4 and TMAP7) by leveraging modern computational techniques, ensuring high software quality assurance standards (key to building trust), and enabling multispecies, multiscale, and multiphysics simulations for integrated tritium transport modeling in complex geometries. This paper outlines TMAP8’s scope and rigorous development practices, emphasizing its transparency, accessibility, modularity, and reliability. We present the current suite of verification and validation cases based on those from TMAP4, demonstrating TMAP8’s accuracy and reliability against analytical solutions and experimental data. Additionally, the paper showcases TMAP8’s integrated fuel cycle modeling capabilities, highlighting its applicability at various scales and levels. The TMAP8 code and documentation are openly available, promoting collaborative development and widespread adoption within the fusion community. Future work will soon expand TMAP8’s verification and validation suite to include those from TMAP7 and other recent experimental studies for validation.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2025

The Advanced Dimensional Depletion for Engineering of Reactors (ADDER) Software for Depletion and Fuel Management

The Advanced Dimensional Depletion for Engineering of Reactors (ADDER) software is being developed in the Research and Test Reactor (RTR) Program at Argonne National Laboratory to meet the reactor design and analysis needs of the Conversion Program. ADDER is a flexible tool that (1) provides a depletion capability through coupling external neutronics codes with a built-in CRAM solver or external depletion code and (2) provides a user-friendly interface to perform fuel management and criticality search operations. The ADDER software is a Python 3 application written using modern software development practices subject to a compliant implementation of NQA-1 and applicable Department of Energy software quality assurance standards. This report is the user guide for the software release referred to as ADDER v1.1.0. The motivation for a software to have flexible capabilities that ADDER possesses is the need to support a wide variety of geometries that are commonly required in analysis of research and test reactors. These reactors can have complex fuel, experiment, or control material shuffling patterns that persist over several years with many fuel management and partial refueling intervals. The scale of fuel management analysis can require tracking of an inventory that is multiple times the core loading. Many reactors, both power and non-power reactors of various types, will find the features of ADDER useful to facilitate key tasks that a fuel or core design engineer must perform with the convenience of concise input and validated functionality.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗