armi.reactor.blocks.hexBlock module

The HexBlock is a vertical slice of a hexagon-shaped assembly. This is a common geometry in reactor design.

class armi.reactor.blocks.hexBlock.HexBlock(name, height=1.0)[source]

Bases: Block

Defines a Block shaped like a hexagon.

Implementation: ARMI has the ability to create hex shaped blocks. I_ARMI_BLOCK_HEX

signature: HexBlock

This class defines hexagonal-shaped Blocks. It inherits functionality from the parent class, Block, and defines hexagonal-specific methods including, but not limited to, querying pin pitch, pin linear power densities, hydraulic diameter, and retrieving inner and outer pitch.

PITCH_COMPONENT_TYPE: ClassVar[Tuple[Type[Component], ...] | None] = (<class 'armi.reactor.components.basicShapes.Hexagon'>,)

coords()[source]

Returns the coordinates of the block.

Implementation: Coordinates of a block are queryable. I_ARMI_BLOCK_POSI2

signature: coords

requirements: R_ARMI_BLOCK_POSI

Calls to the getGlobalCoordinates() method of the block’s spatialLocator attribute, which recursively calls itself on all parents of the block to get the coordinates of the block’s centroid in 3D cartesian space.

Will additionally adjust the x and y coordinates based on the block parameters displacementX and displacementY.

createHomogenizedCopy(pinSpatialLocators=False)[source]

Create a new homogenized copy of a block that is less expensive than a full deepcopy.

Implementation: Block compositions can be homogenized. I_ARMI_BLOCK_HOMOG

signature: createHomogenizedCopy

requirements: R_ARMI_BLOCK_HOMOG

This method creates and returns a homogenized representation of itself in the form of a new Block. The homogenization occurs in the following manner. A single Hexagon Component is created and added to the new Block. This Hexagon Component is given the armi.materials.mixture._Mixture material and a volume averaged temperature (getAverageTempInC). The number densities of the original Block are also stored on this new Component (I_ARMI_CMP_GET_NDENS). Several parameters from the original block are copied onto the homogenized block (e.g., macros, lumped fission products, burnup group, number of pins, and spatial grid).

Notes

This can be used to improve performance when a new copy of a reactor needs to be built, but the full detail of the block (including component geometry, material, number density, etc.) is not required for the targeted physics solver being applied to the new reactor model.

The main use case is for the uniform mesh converter (UMC). Frequently, a deterministic neutronics solver will require a uniform mesh reactor, which is produced by the UMC. Many deterministic solvers for fast spectrum reactors will also treat the individual blocks as homogenized mixtures. Since the neutronics solver does not need to know about the geometric and material details of the individual child components within a block, we can save significant effort while building the uniform mesh reactor with the UMC by omitting this detailed data and only providing the necessary level of detail for the uniform mesh reactor: number densities on each block.

Individual components within a block can have different temperatures, and this can affect cross sections. This temperature variation is captured by the lattice physics module. As long as temperature distribution is correctly captured during cross section generation, it does not need to be transferred to the neutronics solver directly through this copy operation.

If you make a new block, you must add it to an assembly and a reactor.

Returns:: b – temperature and the number densities from the original block.
Return type:: A homogenized block containing a single Hexagon Component that contains an average