12. Output Control

The RMC output control module is used to customize the output content. Especially in large-scale burnup calculations, which may generate a large amount of output information, the output control module can effectively reduce the size of output files.

12.1. Output Control Module Input Options

The input options for the output control module is:

PRINT
Mat <flag>
Keff <flag>
Source <flag>
CellTally <flag>
SURFACETALLY <flag>
POINTTALLY <flag>
MeshTally <flag>
CsTally <flag>
CYCTALLY <flag>
Inpfile <flag>
FissionSource <flag>
Material2HDF5 <flag>
BurnupCorrector <flag>

Among them,

  • PRINT is the keyword for the output control module.
  • Input options such as Mat ,Keff etc., specify whether to output related content(refer to 表12.2). flag = 0 indicates not to output the specified content, input options including Keff, Source, CycTally, Inpfile flag = 1 indicates to output the specified content, input options including Mat, CellTally, SurfTally, PointTally, MeshTally, CsTally flag = n indicates output to the nth decimal place
  • FissionSource is used to control the output of the converged (final generation) fission source information, including the positions, directions, and energy information of all sources, to the file inp.Source.h5.
表12.2 Input options for the output file control module
Input options Output Content Default Option
Mat Nuclide density list for all materials flag = 5, output to 5th decimal places
Keff Keff for each generation flag = 1, output
Source Fission source information for each generation flag = 0, do not output
CellTally Results of cell tallies flag = 4, output to 4th decimal places
SurfTally Results of surface tallies flag = 4, output to 4th decimal places
PointTally Results of point tallies flag = 4, output to 4th decimal places
MeshTally Results of mesh tallies flag = 4, output to 4th decimal places
CsTally Results of cross-section tallies, including one-group cross-section during burnup calculations. flag = 4, output to 4th decimal places
CycTally Tallies for each generation flag = 0, do not output
Inpfile Continuation file input option flag = 0, do not output
Material2HDF5 Outputs material information to an HDF5 file flag = 0, do not output
FissionSource Converged fission source information flag = 0, do not output
BurnupCorrector Calculation results for burnup correction steps flag = 1, output

注解

It is important to note that Material2HDF5 is only effective when the user chooses to enable Inpfile. In this case, the program will output material information (including nuclear density, nuclide composition, etc.) to the material.h5 file instead of a text file. Compared to previous text file outputs, the materials output to the HDF5 file are easier for the program to read, which can effectively reduce the input card reading time in large-scale nuclear thermal coupling calculations. However, the readability of its content is poorer. Notably, to maintain the readability of materials when outputting to an HDF5 file, the RMC Python module includes the Materials.from_hdf5 function. Users can use this function to read the corresponding HDF5 file and convert it into a text file, as shown below:

from RMC.model.input.Material import Materials
materials = Materials.from_hdf5('material.h5')
with open('material.txt', 'w') as f:
    f.write(str(materials))

警告

Material2HDF5 option is recommended to be enabled only during large-scale nuclear thermal coupling calculations to reduce the time taken by the program to read material files and accelerate initialization.

警告

BurnupCorrector option is used to control the output of calculation results for correction steps when the estimated correction method is enabled in burnup calculations. This includes results such as effective multiplication factors and counting statistics for correction steps. It is important to note that in nuclear thermal coupling calculations, due to the existing framework where burnup calculations are split into single-step calculations, the counting results for correction steps will overwrite those for estimated steps (primarily in the power counting file MeshTally1.h5) when the estimated correction method is enabled. However, what is actually needed in coupled calculations are the counting results from the estimated steps. Therefore, it is recommended to set BurnupCorrector 0 in the PRINT options during nuclear thermal coupling calculations.

12.2. Output Control Module Input Example

For burnup calculations with a large number of burnup zones, it is recommended to use the following input cards to suppress the output of material and one-group cross-section information to avoid generating large data files.

PRINT
Mat 0
CsTally 0