Jiankai Yu

Bio

Jiankai Yu is a research scientist at the Center of Nuclear Energy Systems (CANES) in the department of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT. He has published over 20 journal articles and over 20 conference papers in the field of reactor physics, neutronic/thermal-hydraulic/fuel-performance coupling, and Deep Learning-based autonomous control system. During his research at MIT, Jiankai completed the major part of one DOE-NEUP project entitled "Demonstrating Reactor Autonomous Control Framework using Graphite Pile" at MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory. He developed the Deep Learning algorithm driven neutronic reactivity control framework that integrates digital twin, neutron detectors and microcontroller devices, which work has been highlighted by IAEA technical report(IAEA-TECDOC-1976).

Research

High-fidelity Neutronic Modeling and Simulations

He has been intensively working on the high-fidelity neutronic modeling and simulations for diverse irradiation experiment facilities for the MIT research reactor (MITR), including but not limited to ICSA, HTWL, 3GV, pneumatic tube (2PH1), fission converter and the associated M³ and medical room.

Monte Carlo Neutron Transport

He optimized the modeling and simulation capability of OpenMC code for pebble-bed high temperature reactors (HTRs), including TRISO particle packing, lattice acceleration and white boundary condition. He implemented and extended the depletion capability of OpenMC with spatially continuously varying materials without mesh dependency. He also optimized the Windowed Multipole Library (WMP) for on-the-fly Doppler broadening capability in OpenMC code.

Multiphysics Modeling and Simulations

Moreover, he has developed a high-fidelity multiphysics coupling system for the large-scale commercial water reactors core design and analysis. Monte Carlo Neutronics-Thermal/Hydraulic-Fuel/Performance coupling system has been developed and performed the complete two-cycle full-core depletion analysis for the BEAVRS benchmark with multiphysics feedback.

Charged Particles Beam Transport

The high-fidelity modeling and simulations of charged particles, such as proton and deuteron beams in the 10s MeV ~ 1GeV energy range, has been performed to design the fusion neutron source and the long-live fission product transmutation.

Publications

1. Jiankai Yu, Jarod C. Wilson, Akshay J. Dave, Kaichao Sun, Benoit Forget, and Bren Phillips. "Experimental demonstration of a data-driven control system for subcritical nuclear facility." Progress in Nuclear Energy 168 (2024): 104977. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2023.104977). DOE NEUP Awards: DE-NE0008872.
2. Jiankai Yu, and Benoit Forget. "Release of windowed multipole library for ENDF/B-VIII. 0 in support of OpenMC criticality and depletion analysis." Progress in Nuclear Energy, 168 (2024) :104996. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2023.104996). DOE Exascale Computing Project (17-SC-20-SC).
3. Jiankai Yu, and Benoit Forget. "Verification of depletion capability of OpenMC using VERA depletion benchmark." Annals of Nuclear Energy 170 (2022): 108973. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2022.108973). DOE Exascale Computing Project (17-SC-20-SC).
4. Jiankai Yu, Jarod Wilson, Benoit Forget, Akshay J. Dave, Kaichao Sun, and Bren Phillips. "Experimental validation of a high fidelity Monte Carlo neutron transport model of the MIT graphite exponential pile." Progress in Nuclear Energy 152 (2022): 104368. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2022.104368). DOE NEUP Awards: DE-NE0008872.
5. Jiankai Yu, Hyunsuk Lee, Hanjoo Kim, Peng Zhang, and Deokjung Lee. "Simulations of BEAVRS benchmark cycle 2 depletion with MCS/CTF coupling system." Nuclear Engineering and Technology 52, no. 4 (2020): 661-673, (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.net.2019.09.007).
6. Jiankai Yu, Hyunsuk Lee, Hanjoo Kim, Peng Zhang, and Deokjung Lee. "Coupling of FRAPCON for fuel performance analysis in the Monte Carlo code MCS." Computer Physics Communications 251 (2020): 106748. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpc.2019.03.001).
7. Jiankai Yu, Hyunsuk Lee, Hanjoo Kim, Peng Zhang, and Deokjung Lee. "Coupled Neutronics – Thermal-Hydraulic Simulation of BEAVRS Cycle 1 Depletion by the MCS/CTF Code System." Nuclear Technology 206, no. 5 (2020): 728-742, (https://doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1677107).
8. Jiankai Yu, Hyunsuk Lee, Matthieu Lemaire, Hanjoo Kim, Peng Zhang, Deokjung Lee, Fuel performance analysis of BEAVRS benchmark Cycle 1 depletion with MCS/FRAPCON coupled system, Annals of Nuclear Energy 138 (2020) 107192, (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2019.107192).
9. Jiankai Yu, Hyunsuk Lee, Matthieu Lemaire, Hanjoo Kim, Peng Zhang, Deokjung Lee*, "MCS Based Neutronics/Thermal-Hydraulics/Fuel-Performance Coupling with CTF and FRAPCON", Comput. Phys. Commun, 238(2019): 1-18, (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpc.2019.01.001).
10. Jiankai Yu, Hyunsuk Lee, Hanjoo Kim, Peng Zhang, Deokjung Lee*, "Preliminary Coupling of the Thermal/Hydraulic Solvers in the Monte Carlo Code MCS for Practical LWR Analysis", Ann. Nucl. Energy, 118 (2018): 317-335, (http://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2018.03.043).