User’s Guide

Welcome to the OpenMC User’s Guide! This tutorial will guide you through the essential aspects of using OpenMC to perform simulations.

• 1. A Beginner’s Guide to OpenMC
  • 1.1. What does OpenMC do?
  • 1.2. How does it work?
  • 1.3. What do I need to know?
• 2. Installation and Configuration
  • 2.1. Installing on Ubuntu with PPA
  • 2.2. Building from Source
    • 2.2.1. Prerequisites
    • 2.2.2. Obtaining the Source
    • 2.2.3. Build Configuration
    • 2.2.4. Compiling on Linux and Mac OS X
    • 2.2.5. Compiling on Windows
    • 2.2.6. Compiling for the Intel Xeon Phi
    • 2.2.7. Testing Build
  • 2.3. Cross Section Configuration
    • 2.3.1. Using ENDF/B-VII.1 Cross Sections from NNDC
    • 2.3.2. Using JEFF Cross Sections from OECD/NEA
    • 2.3.3. Using Cross Sections from MCNP
    • 2.3.4. Using Cross Sections from Serpent
    • 2.3.5. Using Multi-Group Cross Sections
  • 2.4. Running OpenMC
    • 2.4.1. Command-Line Flags
  • 2.5. Configuring Input Validation with GNU Emacs nXML mode
• 3. Writing XML Input Files
  • 3.1. Overview of Files
  • 3.2. Validating XML Files
  • 3.3. Settings Specification – settings.xml
    • 3.3.1. <confidence_intervals> Element
    • 3.3.2. <cross_sections> Element
    • 3.3.3. <cutoff> Element
    • 3.3.4. <eigenvalue> Element
    • 3.3.5. <energy_grid> Element
    • 3.3.6. <energy_mode> Element
    • 3.3.7. <entropy> Element
    • 3.3.8. <fixed_source> Element
    • 3.3.9. <log_grid_bins> Element
    • 3.3.10. <multipole_library> Element
    • 3.3.11. <max_order> Element
    • 3.3.12. <natural_elements> Element
    • 3.3.13. <no_reduce> Element
    • 3.3.14. <output> Element
    • 3.3.15. <output_path> Element
    • 3.3.16. <ptables> Element
    • 3.3.17. <resonance_scattering> Element
    • 3.3.18. <run_cmfd> Element
    • 3.3.19. <seed> Element
    • 3.3.20. <source> Element
    • 3.3.21. <state_point> Element
    • 3.3.22. <source_point> Element
    • 3.3.23. <survival_biasing> Element
    • 3.3.24. <threads> Element
    • 3.3.25. <trace> Element
    • 3.3.26. <track> Element
    • 3.3.27. <trigger> Element
    • 3.3.28. <uniform_fs> Element
    • 3.3.29. <use_windowed_multipole> Element
    • 3.3.30. <verbosity> Element
  • 3.4. Geometry Specification – geometry.xml
    • 3.4.1. <surface> Element
    • 3.4.2. <cell> Element
    • 3.4.3. <lattice> Element
    • 3.4.4. <hex_lattice> Element
  • 3.5. Materials Specification – materials.xml
    • 3.5.1. <material> Element
    • 3.5.2. <default_xs> Element
  • 3.6. Tallies Specification – tallies.xml
    • 3.6.1. <tally> Element
    • 3.6.2. <mesh> Element
    • 3.6.3. <assume_separate> Element
  • 3.7. Geometry Plotting Specification – plots.xml
    • 3.7.1. <plot> Element
  • 3.8. CMFD Specification – cmfd.xml
    • 3.8.1. <begin> Element
    • 3.8.2. <dhat_reset> Element
    • 3.8.3. <display> Element
    • 3.8.4. <downscatter> Element
    • 3.8.5. <feedback> Element
    • 3.8.6. <gauss_seidel_tolerance> Element
    • 3.8.7. <ktol> Element
    • 3.8.8. <mesh> Element
    • 3.8.9. <norm> Element
    • 3.8.10. <power_monitor> Element
    • 3.8.11. <run_adjoint> Element
    • 3.8.12. <shift> Element
    • 3.8.13. <spectral> Element
    • 3.8.14. <stol> Element
    • 3.8.15. <tally_reset> Element
    • 3.8.16. <write_matrices> Element
  • 3.9. ERSN-OpenMC Graphical User Interface
• 4. Data Processing and Visualization
  • 4.1. Geometry Visualization
    • 4.1.1. Plotting in 2D
    • 4.1.2. Plotting in 3D
  • 4.2. Tally Visualization
    • 4.2.1. Data Extraction
    • 4.2.2. Plotting in 2D
    • 4.2.3. Plotting in 3D
    • 4.2.4. Getting Data into MATLAB
  • 4.3. Particle Track Visualization
  • 4.4. Source Site Processing
• 5. Troubleshooting
  • 5.1. Problems with Compilation
    • 5.1.1. undefined reference to `_vtab$...
    • 5.1.2. gfortran: unrecognized option ‘-cpp’
    • 5.1.3. f951: error: unrecognized command line option “-fbacktrace”
  • 5.2. Problems with Simulations
    • 5.2.1. Segmentation Fault
    • 5.2.2. ERROR: No cross_sections.xml file was specified in settings.xml or in the CROSS_SECTIONS environment variable.
    • 5.2.3. Geometry Debugging