CADIS Variance Reduction with MAVRIC
Cihangir Celik
SCALE Users’ Group Workshop
ORNL, July 27-29, 2020
ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC for the US Department of Energy
Monaco with Automated Variance Reduction using Importance Calculations
MAVRIC
•Elements of a Shielding Calculation
– Physical Model
– Source
– Responses
– Calculational Parameters
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Physical Model
•Geometry description
– Boolean operation of solid and surface equations
•Material compositions
– Physical mixture: weight fractions, atomic fractions
– Chemical formula
– Density
– Isotopic distribution of elements
•Interaction cross sections
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Sources
•Particle type
•Spatial distribution
•Energy distribution
•Directional distribution
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Responses
•Type of response
– At a point
– For a geometric region
– Superimposed mesh
•Quantity to Calculate
– Flux
– Dose Rate
– Reaction Rate
•Dimensionality
– Total
– Function of R, E, Ω, etc
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SCALE Strategy for Shielding is Monte Carlo
• Calculational Parameters for Monte Carlo Simulations
– Minimum accuracy
– Maximum runtime
– Problem truncation
– Variance reduction
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Monte Carlo Simulation Strengths and Drawbacks
•Strengths of MC
– Straightforward physics
• particle-based interactions,
• physics expressed as probability distribution functions (pdf)
– Geometry at any level of detail – no meshing approximations
– Time – depends on problem, how many results (tallies), level of geometry
•Drawbacks of MC
detail
•Difficult Problems
– Streaming
– Highly scattering
– Deep penetration
Efficient Variance Reduction is key with
Monte Carlo shielding problems!
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Variance Reduction Methods
•Changing the sampling routines to
optimize the simulation to get more
particles to do something
– Forcing, biasing, stretching, implicit capture,
and weight windows
– Requires knowledge about how the
calculation will most likely proceed
– May require iterative process to tune biasing
– Multiple methods may work against each
other
– “Bad” biasing can slow the rate of
convergence
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