Preliminary Development of a Coupling Environment Based on MOOSE and OpenFOAM and Its Application on Plate Fuel Modeling

Abstract High-fidelity analysis of nuclear reactors is beneficial to improving the efficiency of nuclear reactor designs. To enhance modeling fidelity, multi-physics coupling simulations are typically employed. To this end, several platforms for code coupling are under active development, including MOOSE, SALOME, et al. In this paper, the loosely coupling interface between MOOSE and OpenFOAM was developed, aiming to extend the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) capacity for MOOSE. Specifically, process control, data transfer, and mesh projection of the coupled simulation are realized by the “MultiApps” and “Transfers” module within MOOSE and the “externalCoupled” module within OpenFOAM, where text-based data transfer is used. The CFD capabilities of OpenFOAM and the finite element analysis capabilities of MOOSE are fully utilized in this coupling environment. Subsequently, a conjugated heat transfer problem for plate fuel was conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of the developed interface, where variables consisting of temperature, convective heat transfer coefficient, and heat flux at outer surfaces are transferred between MOOSE and OpenFOAM. The predicted results of the plate fuel seem reasonable and the validity of the novel coupling code for MOOSE and OpenFOAM is preliminary confirmed.