Development of Three-dimensional Virtual Plant Vibration Simulator on Grid Computing Environment ITBL-IS/AEGIS

Abstract

Center for computational science and e-systems of Japan Atomic Energy Agency is carrying out R&D in the area of extra large-scale simulation technologies for solving nuclear plant structures in its entirety. Specifically, we focus on establishing a virtual plant vibration simulator on inter-connected supercomputers intended for seismic response analysis of a whole nuclear plant. The simulation of a whole plant is a very difficult task because an extremely large dataset must be processed. To overcome this difficulty, we have proposed and implemented a necessary simulation framework and computing platform. The computing platform enables an extra large-scale whole nuclear plant simulation to be carried out on a grid computing platform called ITBL-IS, Information Technology Based Laboratory Infrastructure and AEGIS, Atomic Energy Grid Infrastructure. The simulation framework based on the computing platform has been applied to a linear elastic analysis of the reactor pressure vessel and cooling systems of the nuclear research facility, HTTR. The simulation framework opens a possibility of new simulation technologies for building a whole virtual nuclear plant in computers for virtual experiments.