MCNP code

 Introduction
 Simulation using MCNP
 Visual Editor
 Variance Reduction

Siriyaporn Sangaroon
25 September 2014 1
Introduction

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 The Monte Carlo Method

Monte Carlo is used to simulate statistical processes theoretically (like

the interaction of nuclear particles with materials) and is particularly
useful for complex problems that can not be modeled by computer
codes that use deterministic methods.

The individual probabilistic events

that comprise a process are
simulated sequentially.

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Number of publications on various MC codes

Modern Radiation Transport Codes

• GEANT (CERN)
• MCNP (LANL - USA)
• SCALE / Morse / KENO (ORNL – USA)
• TRIPOLI (France)
• Answers / Monk / McBend (UK)
• PHITS (Japan)
• MCU (Russia)
• SHIELD (Russia)

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The Monte Carlo Particle Transportation Grand
Prix, during last 10 years

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 Tools for modelling and simulation of particle transport

Used in a large number of different research fields, including applied

nuclear physics, nuclear physics, elementary particle physics, medicine
and space physics.
The simulation and modelling tools:
PENELOPE - Monte Carlo simulation package for photon and
electron transport (www.nea.fr)
MCNP - Monte Carlo package for neutron and photon simulation
(www.lanl.gov)
GEANT - Simulation package for particle transport trough matter
(geant4.cern.ch)
FLUKA - Calculation of particle transport and interactions with
matter (www.fluka.org) 6
 PENELOPE

 A Code System for Monte Carlo Simulation of Electron and

Photon Transport written by Francesc Salvat, Jose M.
Fernandez-Varea, Joseph Sempau from ECM University
Barcelona (2001). Distributed through the NEA data bank
 Fortran based simulation code → possible to link with cernlib
(doesn't require knowledge of fortran for simulation only)
 Used mainly in medical physics
 Easy to install and operate. Doesn't require large resources.
(~250MB)

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 GEANT

 Geant4 is a software using an Object-Oriented environment (C++)

 Many requirements taken into account, from heavy ion physics to
medical applications
 A large degree of flexibility is provided
 Toolkit

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 FLUKA
 1962: MC code(s) for high-energy proton beams J. Ranft (Leipzig) and H.
Geibel (CERN)
 1970: Study of event-by-event fluctuations in calorimeters =>
FLUktuierende Kaskade, Mainly used for radiation shielding studies
 1970-1987: Development by J. Ranft and J.H. M๖hring (Leipzig) with
significant contributions from P. Aarnio and J. Routti (Helsinki), J.M.
Zazula (Cracow) and A. Fass๒ and G.R. Stephenson (CERN)
 1989-: A. Ferrari and P.R. Sala (INFN Milano), together with A. Fass and J.
Ranft, transforms FLUKA into a general purpose MC code
 2003: CERN-INFN Collaboration Agreement
 2006: Many improvements, free format input, nice tools…
 2011: Gfortran option available 9
 MCNP

 Developed at Los Alamos over 5 decades

 100s of man years development
 Stands for Monte Carlo Neutrons and Particles
 Generate particles with arbitrary energy, direction and species
 These are tracked through arbitrary 3D geometry
 Physics of the interactions of the particles well modelled
 Use tallies to see what went where

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 My work on MCNP Simulation (2013-2014)

 Liquid scintillator (together NRESP code): Response Neutron 2.45

function, Efficiency MeV (and g-rays)
 Neutron camera for MAST
 Experimental hall,
MAST
 NCU Geometries
 Neutron flux, emissivity
profile
 Shielding (materials)
 Scattered neutron
(in/back scattered)
Conceptual design of the Neutron Camera  Background g-ray
(neutron capture)
Upgrade for MAST Upgrade
 … 11
Simulation using MCNP

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 MCNP Simulation
 Last release of MCNP5 (version 1.60) (NPE)
 Last release of MCNPX (version 2.7.0)
o Capable of tracking 34 particle types
o Energy range:
 Neutron: 0.01 MeV – 20 MeV
 Photon: 1 keV – 100 GeV
 Electron: 1 keV – 1 GeV
 MCNP6
o Essential features of MCNPX and MCNP5 available in MCNP6
o MCNP6 Version 1.0 released Aug 2013.

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 Applications
 Homeland Security
 Detector Responses, Including
Electrons
 Medical
 Shielding -- neutron and photon
 Reactor Physics Neutronics
 Well Logging -- source, detector
 Health Physics
 Criticality Safety
 Magnetic Fusion Neutronics
 Activation and Decommissioning
 Space and Accelerator
 Energy Deposition
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Documentation

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 Compiling

 Executables available for all officially supported systems

–Unix (Sun)
–Linux (Intel, PGI)
–Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 (Intel)

 How to install (Windows)

- After installed, copy folder “MCNP_DATA” to C:\MCNP\

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Execution

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Execution

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 Input file

1. Word pad
2. The Visual Editor for Monte Carlo N-Particle : code for visually creating
and graphically displaying input files for MCNP

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 Input file

TITLE CARD
CELL CARDS
SURFACE CARDS
DATA CARDS

Whatever isn’t a surface or cell card.

 Source sdef, kcode
 Tallies f2, f4, f6, …
 Materials m1, m2, …
 Variance Reduction imp, wwg, …
 Problem terminate nps, ctme
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 Peripheral cards mode, phys, …
Surface Cards

*MCNP5_manual_VOL_II page 3-1321

Surface Card Format

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 Cell Cards

Once you have defined surfaces, then you combine those surfaces into
cells using the intersection and/or the union of surfaces.
 Cells are the basic unit of MCNP geometry
 Cells are defined by Surfaces
 Cartesian Coordinate System
 Must account for all phase space
 Every xyz point will lie either on a surface or within a uniquely
defined cell.
 At least one cell will describe the “outside world”, exterior to
the problem cells (with importance of zero).
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All phase space defined

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Cell Card Format

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Boolean Intersection

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Boolean Union

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Order Of Operations

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Example (2 cubes nested)

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 Macrobodies Simplify Cell Descriptions

 With Macrobodies a cube is a single surface

 Inside a macrobody is negative sense
 Outside a macrobody is positive sense

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Macrobodies

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2 Cube Example with Macrobodies

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MACROBODIES (cont)

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Macrobody Limitations

 Limited Number of Macrobodies

 May want / need to use both surfaces & bodies
 Still need to understand Boolean Operators
 Macrobodies have eccentricities
o Specifying a facet for SSR & SSW
o Specifying a facet for a flagged surface (fatal)
o Items that may involve a facet in PTRAC
o Surface sense changed for some Macrobody facets

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Data Cards

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Mn (Material) Card

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 Importances

Either an IMP or WWN card is required; most of the other cards are for 37
optional variance reduction techniques
 The Visual Editor for Monte Carlo N-Particle

Surface

*Note:
Visual
Editor
Macro
body Surface wizard 38
 Cell

*Note:
Visual
Editor

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More Problem Cutoff Options
STOP card/stop<inp> file

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MODE Card

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MCNP Particles

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 Auxiliary Input Files (READ Card)

• SSR/SSW
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Source Description

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SDEF Description

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SDEF1 Input File
Plot source

Plot track

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Checking The Source (output)

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First 50 Particles

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SDEF Description

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SI, SP, SB, and DS CARDS

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Specific SDEF Example
on Plasma Fusion

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 Tallies

Definitions

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Tally Types

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Basic Tally Format

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Additional Tally Capabilities

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 Visual Editor
The Visual Editor for Monte Carlo N-Particle : code for visually
creating and graphically displaying input files for MCNP

* The default location is C:\MCNP

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What is the Visual Editor?

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Complete Interface for MCNP

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Complete Interface for MCNP

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Example geometry
BOX (x=0.525 cm, y=0.03 cm, z=12cm)
Electron source

BOX (x=0.525 cm, y=0.03 cm, z=0.1cm)

Attenuator (Tungsten) 61
Source (sdef)

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Plot Tracks

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Tally

Unit 1/cm2 per

Electron flux
(5x10^8)
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Tally

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Variance Reduction

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Definitions

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Ten Statistical Checks (Output file)

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Variance reduction techniques used to improve
efficiency

Either an IMP or WWN card

is required; most of the
other cards are for
optional variance
reduction techniques

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 Cell Importance Cards: IMP
The importance of a cell is used to
terminate the particle’s history if the
Y axis importance is zero, for geometry
splitting and Russian roulette to help
Simple Geometry particles move to more important
regions of the geometry.
Slab of lead divided into
10 cell by planes
Tally:
f1:p 20

(Current integrated over a surface,

unit in particles)
Source:
sdef sur 10 vec 0 1 0
dir=d1 erg 100 par p

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Example 1: imp:p 1 10r 0
All cell in side the universe have the important = 1

FOM = 290

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Example 2: Random the cell importance value
Tally
21 1 -11 -30 10 -11 imp:p=2
22 1 -11 -30 11 -12 imp:p=4
23 1 -11 -30 12 -13 imp:p=8 Source
24 1 -11 -30 13 -14 imp:p=16
25 1 -11 -30 14 -15 imp:p=32
26 1 -11 -30 15 -16 imp:p=64
27 1 -11 -30 16 -17 imp:p=128
28 1 -11 -30 17 -18 imp:p=256
29 1 -11 -30 18 -19 imp:p=512
30 1 -11 -30 19 -20 imp:p=1024
31 0 (-10:30:20) -31 imp:p=1
32 0 31 imp:p=0
Cell 21 ........... 30

FOM = 4806 (very high) but it did not pass 1 of 10 statistical checks 72
 Weight Window Cards
Weight windows can be either cell-based or mesh-based.

Weight windows: Cell-based (from previous example)

 Using Weight Window Generation: WWG
wwg 1 21 invokes cell- or mesh-based weight window generator
(typically a source cell)
problem tally number

*.e file are generated to use for the next run

From the first run
wwe:p 1.0000E+02
wwn1:p 5.0000E-01 1.6259E-01 4.5190E-02 1.3010E-02 4.0550E-03
1.3200E-03 5.2000E-04 2.1000E-04 1.0500E-04 5.0000E-05
0.0000E+00 -1.0000E+00

Run Statitic FOM

1 7/10 273
2 10/10 4091 Use *.e file from run #1
3 10/10 4674 Use *.e file from run #2 73
 Weight windows: Mesh-based

Geometry Mesh for weight window

cell flux (F4)
Weight windows: Mesh-based
AIR
HDPE

LEAD

Neutron capture
in HDPE

2.5 MeV neutron from

outer surface of the
sphere
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weight window
Neutron: 1st run Neutron: 7th run

Gamma: 7th run

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 Tally plots
ctme 1 (min)
No weight window
neutron gamma
(imp = 0, 1)

With weight window neutron gamma

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Note

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Beam* SDEF Example

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