Speaker: April Novak, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Abstract: Multiphysics interactions between radiation transport and thermal-fluids play an important role in fission and fusion reactor design and safety analysis. This talk will cover the historical challenges, and recent developments, in high-fidelity multiphysics couplings between Monte Carlo radiation transport and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools. Cardinal is an open-source multiphysics integration of the OpenMC Monte Carlo code and the NekRS spectral element CFD code with the MOOSE finite element framework that enables first-of-a-kind multiphysics simulation by leveraging scalable solvers, advancements in GPU computing, and innovative coupling algorithms. Applications to high temperature gas reactors, molten salt reactors, and fusion components will be used to showcase some recent research in this area. Finally, the talk will conclude with discussion on some future directions and current needs in the high-fidelity multiphysics space.
Bio: April Novak is an Assistant Professor in the Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological (NPRE) Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where she leads research programs in computational methods for nuclear engineering with emphasis on thermal-hydraulics, Monte Carlo methods, multiphysics, high performance computing, and open source software development. Dr. Novak is a recipient of the DOE-Nuclear Energy Early Career Award. Prior to joining UIUC, she was a Fellow in the Computational Sciences Division at Argonne from 2020-2023. She has a PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley (2020).