High-Performance Computing Enables Khalifa University Team to Successfully Run Complex Simulations
Khalifa University鈥檚 powerful high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure enabled researchers Prof. Abdallah Sofiane Berrouk, Professor, Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering,聽 Theme Leader, Research Center for Catalysis and Separation (CeCaS), and Ahmed Mongy Alatyar, PhD Researcher, to win the First Annual American Society of Thermal and Fluid Engineering (ASTFE) Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics CFD Competition in the US.
Organized by the ASTFE and Framatome, an international leader in nuclear energy, the competition involved a complex challenge for developing the most accurate Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model for the multi-jet Gas-mixture Dome (MiGaDome) facility installed at the University of Michigan. The CFD competition was part of ASTFE 2024 organized earlier at Oregon State University, with 12 CFD research groups participating. Out of these, five groups were shortlisted to present their work at the 9th Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference, 2024 (TFEC-ASTFE 24), and the Khalifa University team won the award.
A panel of judges conducted a comprehensive comparison of the CFD models and the experimental data from the MiGaDome. According to the judges, the Khalifa University team鈥檚 CFD model exhibited the best correlations on almost all the studied parameters and the energy consumption, earning them the top spot in the competition.
HPC was crucial in allowing the team to successfully run their complex CFD simulations, handle the large data volumes, and quickly debug their models, enabling them to obtain the required results within the competition鈥檚 tight timeframe. The CFD model got the best correlations with the experimental data while consuming the minimum computational energy, demonstrating the best effective model fitness.
The MiGaDome facility at the University of Michigan is designed to study the fluids-mix inside large enclosed spaces, an important factor for nuclear reactor designs. The data from experiments conducted at this facility was used to test the accuracy of the CFD models submitted by the competition participants, without the participants knowing the experimental results ahead of time.
Moreover, the teams built the CFD models without the ability to simply guess or trial-and-error their way to a solution. All participants only discovered how well their results matched the experimental data when the models were presented at the conference, making the competition even more rigorous, as the teams had to rely solely on their modeling expertise to try to predict the outcomes.
The achievement is expected to have a significant impact on the future of nuclear thermal hydraulics research in the UAE as advanced 3D CFD simulations have proven to be indispensable for making reliable predictions across a wide range of operating conditions and safety scenarios in the nuclear energy field. These powerful 3D models can provide much more cost-effective solutions for tackling the complex thermal-hydraulic analysis challenges that the traditional one-dimensional computer models struggle with as they often lack the necessary detail and accuracy to fully capture important thermal-hydraulic phenomena in nuclear reactors.
Prof. Abdallah Sofiane Berrouk said: 鈥淭he success from this prestigious competition underscores Khalifa University鈥檚 commitment to advancing nuclear engineering research and its potential to contribute to the future of the peaceful nuclear energy industry in the UAE. This achievement demonstrates the University鈥檚 cutting-edge research infrastructure capabilities in helping establish the UAE鈥檚 knowledge base for thermal-hydraulic multiscale simulations with the dual purposes of enhancing the current reactors鈥� safety and operations reliability, and accelerating the deployment of future advanced nuclear reactors.聽I am hopeful this success will encourage more support for Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering projects from across the academic and research spectrum.鈥�
