Studies on the convergence of a Monte Carlo criticality calculation : coupling with a deterministic code and automated transient detection

Monte Carlo criticality calculation allows to estimate the effective mu- tiplication factor as well as local quantities such as local reaction rates. Some configurations presenting weak neutronic coupling (high burn up pro- file, complete reactor core, ...) may induce biased estimations for kef f or reaction rates. In order to improve robustness of the iterative Monte Carlo méthods, a coupling with a deterministic code was studied. An adjoint flux is obtained by a deterministic calculation and then used in the Monte Carlo. The initial guess is then automated, the sampling of fission sites is modi- fied and the random walk of neutrons is modified using splitting and russian roulette strategies. An automated convergence detection method has been developped. It locates and suppresses the transient due to the initialization in an output series, applied here to kef f and Shannon entropy. It relies on modeling stationary series by an order 1 auto regressive process and applying statistical tests based on a Student Bridge statistics. This method can easily be extended to every output of an iterative Monte Carlo. Methods developed in this thesis are tested on different test cases.

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Source https://theses.hal.science/tel-00846504
Author Jinaphanh, Alexis
Maintainer CCSD
Last Updated May 10, 2026, 07:01 (UTC)
Created May 10, 2026, 07:01 (UTC)
Identifier NNT: 2012GRENY063
Language fr
Rights https://about.hal.science/hal-authorisation-v1/
contributor Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie (LPSC) ; Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble (INPG)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
creator Jinaphanh, Alexis
date 2012-12-03T00:00:00
harvest_object_id f4785e8f-266b-443e-9163-e9ce8ff30978
harvest_source_id 3374d638-d20b-4672-ba96-a23232d55657
harvest_source_title test moissonnage SELUNE
metadata_modified 2026-04-10T00:00:00
set_spec type:THESE