Quincy Cortez plucks at a slim black box laid across his legs,his fingers flashing silver.Steel strings twang with each pull from the metal rings-wearable guitar picks-adorning his right thumb,index and middle finger.
Dispersion fuels,knowned for their excellent safety performance,are widely used in advanced reactors,such as hightemperature gas-cooled reactors.Compared with deterministic methods,the Monte Carlo method has more advantages in the geometric modeling of stochastic media.The explicit modeling method has high computational accuracy and high computational cost.The chord length sampling(CLS)method can improve computational efficiency by sampling the chord length during neutron transport using the matrix chord length?s probability density function.This study shows that the excluded-volume effect in realistic stochastic media can introduce certain deviations into the CLS.A chord length correction approach is proposed to obtain the chord length correction factor by developing the Particle code based on equivalent transmission probability.Through numerical analysis against reference solutions from explicit modeling in the RMC code,it was demonstrated that CLS with the proposed correction method provides good accuracy for addressing the excludedvolume effect in realistic infinite stochastic media.
Purpose – Straightness measurement of rail weld joint is of essential importance to railway maintenance. Dueto the lack of efficient measurement equipment, there has been limited in-depth research on rail weld joint with a5-m wavelength range, leaving a significant knowledge gap in this field.Design/methodology/approach – In this study, the authors used the well-established inertial referencemethod (IR-method), and the state-of-the-art multi-point chord reference method (MCR-method). Two methodshave been applied in different types of rail straightness measurement trollies, respectively. These instrumentswere tested in a high-speed rail section within a certain region of China. The test results were ultimatelyvalidated through using traditional straightedge and feeler gauge methods as reference data to evaluate the railweld joint straightness within the 5-m wavelength range.Findings – The research reveals that IR-method and MCR-method produce reasonably similar measurementresults for wavelengths below 1 m. However, MCR-method outperforms IR-method in terms of accuracy forwavelengths exceeding 3 m. Furthermore, it was observed that IR-method, while operating at a slower speed,carries the risk of derailing and is incapable of detecting rail weld joints and low joints within the track.Originality/value – The research compare two methods’ measurement effects in a longer wavelength rangeand demonstrate the superiority of MCR-method.
