Skip to main content
  • Paul Scherrer Institut PSI
  • PSI Research, Labs & User Services

Digital User Office

  • Digital User Office
  • DE
  • EN
  • FR
Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI)
Search
Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI)

Hauptnavigation

  • Research at PSIOpen mainmenu item
    • Research Initiatives
    • Ethics and Research integrity
    • Scientific Highlights
    • Scientific Events
    • Scientific Career
    • PSI-FELLOW
    • PSI Data Policy
  • Research Divisions and LabsOpen mainmenu item
    • Overview
    • Research with Neutrons and Muons
    • Photon Science
    • Energy and Environment
    • Nuclear Energy and Safety
    • Biology and Chemistry
    • Scientific Computing, Theory and Data
    • Large Research Facilities
    • Logistics
  • Facilities and InstrumentsOpen mainmenu item
    • Overview
    • Large Research Facilities
    • Facilities
    • PSI Facility Newsletter
  • PSI User ServicesOpen mainmenu item
    • User Office
    • Methods at the PSI User Facilities
    • Proposals for beam time
    • Proposal Deadlines
    • Data Analysis Service (PSD)
    • EU support programmes
  • New ProjectsOpen mainmenu item
    • SLS 2.0
    • IMPACT
  • DE
  • EN
  • FR

Digital User Office (mobile)

  • Digital User Office

You are here:

  1. PSI Home
  2. Labs & User Services
  3. NES
  4. LRT
  5. STARS
  6. Research & Highlights
  7. Overview

Secondary navigation

Project STARS

  • About STARS
    • Profile
    • Mission
    • Vision
    • Strategy
    • Organization
  • Team
  • Partners
  • Code System
    • The Swiss Simulation Platform
    • Code Description
    • Methods & Tools
    • Co-Development
  • Scientific Support
  • Teaching and Education
    • Master Theses and Trainee Projects
    • PhD Theses
  • Research & Highlights Expanded submenu item
    • Overview
    • Scientific Highlights
  • Journal publications
  • Conference Articles
  • Quality Management

STARS - Research and Development overview

From "Turbine to Pellet" and from "Finer to Coarser" Integral LWR Modelling and Simulations


The STARS "Research and Development" (RND) activities aim ultimately at enhancing knowledge on the complex phenomenology of nuclear reactor safety by establishing and qualifying increasingly more advanced and more reliable, physics-based simulation models and methods.

The RND activities constitute thus the central component of the STARS RND activities and are centered around the three main technical areas along which expertise has been consolidated over the years, namely:
  • Plant system thermal-hydraulics and fluid dynamics;
  • Core reactor physics, dynamics and neutron/particle transport;
  • Fuel thermo-mechanics and material behaviour.
ResearchOverview-notrans.png



Within each of the technical areas, a first key activity is the verification and validation of adequate simulation codes along with the continuous development and maintenance of associated reference models for the Swiss reactors. The combination of {code, simulation model e.g. nodalization and the selected physical/numerical methods} is referred to as simulation methodologies and within each technical areas, research is focused on two categories of simulation methodologies:
  • best-estimate safety analysis methodologies aimed at direct safety or operational related applications;
  • higher-order higher fidelity methodologies representing the same physics but handling the relevant phenomena at finer resolved spatial/temporal scales and for this reason also relying often on tighter coupling approaches for the numerical algorithms. These higher-order methodologies can then be used either on stand-alone basis for specific applications or in a so-called “Multi-Scale” mode i.e. to provide numerical solutions to benchmark the safety analysis methods or to allow enhancing specific models of the latter which are uncertain or not well-known/understood.

Across the areas, a second key activity of STARS is to develop and validate so-called “Multi-Physics” methodologies. This refers to computational schemes where two or more of the codes employed in each separate area are via adequate numerical techniques coupled to codes from the other areas, the objective being to better integrate spatial and dynamical interactions between the various physics when conducting the safety analyses.

Finally, a third key activity is to develop in each of the areas, so-called "Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) and Sensitivity Analysis (SA)" methods in order to complement the simulation results with uncertainty as well as to identify the major contributors to these uncertainties.

Thereby, in-line with the strategic goals (see "Technical Objectives" section here), the long-term objective is then to apply these UQ/SA methods in order to achieve “integral multi-physics multi-scale LWR best-estimate safety analyses with uncertainty quantification”

Sidebar


SQS Signet
IQNET Signet

General Contact

Reactor Systems, Nuclear Fuel and Radiation Safety

Paul Scherrer Institute
5232 Villigen PSI
Switzerland

Hakim Ferroukhi
Project Leader
Office: OHSA/C10
Telephone: +41 56 310 4062
E-mail: hakim.ferroukhi@psi.ch

Petra kull
Administration & Assistance
Office: OHSA/C18
Telephone: +41 56 310 2685
E-mail: petra.kull@psi.ch

LRT

Homepage of Laboratory for Reactor Physics and Thermal-Hydraulics (LRT).

Directions to PSI

How to get to the Paul Scherrer Institute (description and map)

top

Footer

Paul Scherrer Institut

Forschungsstrasse 111
5232 Villigen PSI
Switzerland

Telephone: +41 56 310 21 11
Telefax: +41 56 310 21 99

How to find us
Contact

Visitor Centre psi forum
School Lab iLab (in German)
Center for Proton Therapy
PSI Education Centre
PSI Guest House
PSI Gastronomie (in German)
psi forum shop

Service & Support

  • Phone Book
  • User Office
  • Accelerator Status
  • PSI Publications
  • Suppliers
  • E-Billing
  • Computing
  • Safety (in German)

Career

  • Working at PSI
  • Job Opportunities
  • Training and further education
  • Career Center
  • Vocational Training (in German)
  • PSI Education Center

For the media

  • PSI in brief
  • Facts and Figures
  • Media corner
  • Media Releases
  • Social Media

Follow us: Twitter (in English) LinkedIn Youtube Facebook Instagram Issuu RSS

Footer legal

  • Imprint
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Editors' login