A PERSONAL-COMPUTER-BASED WORKSTATION FOR THE ADVANCED THER-MAL HYDRAULIC ENERGY NETWORK ANALYZER

IT IS PLANNED TO DEVELOP A WORKSTATION ENVIRONMENT FOR THE ADVANCED THERMAL HYDRAULIC ENERGY NETWORK ANALYZER (ATHENA) CODE TO FACILITATE FUSION REACTOR DESIGN STUDIES. ATHENA HAS A WIDE RANGE OF CAPABILITIES AND IS AN ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR THE STUDY OF FUSION REACTOR DESIGN. THE PERSONAL-COMPUTER (PC)-BASED WORKSTATION ENVIRONMENT FOR ATHENA WILL STREAMLINE AND AUTOMATE THE DEVELOPMENT OF INPUTDECKS, ASSIST WITH THE REVIEW OF ANALYSIS RESULTS, AND SIMPLIFY THE USE OF ATHENA FOR NEW AND INFREQUENT USERS. UNDER PHASE I, A PROTOTYPE WORKSTATION FOR DEVELOPING ATHENA INPUT DATA WILL BE IMPLEMENTED AND THE NEED FOR ENHANCEMENTS AND POSTPROCESSING EXTENSIONS TO AID IN EVALUATING THE RESULTS FROM ATHENA ANALYSIS DETERMINED. EXISTING EIKON SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENT, WHICH RUNS ON THE IBM-PC FAMILY OF MICROCOMPUTERS, WILL BE USED TO DEVELOP A MENU-DRIVEN INTERACTIVE EIKON/ATHENA PROTOTYPE. THE SOFTWARE WILL CONSIST OF A COMPLETE MENU STRUCTURE WITH ON-LINE HELP FEATURES, DESCRIPTIVE FORMS FOR ATHENA DATA INPUT, THE ABILITY TO CREATE MAINFRAME-READY ATHENA INPUT DECKS, AND A USER'S MANUAL. THE PROTOTYPE WILL ALLOW INPUT OF ATHENA STEADY-STATE RESULTS THAT WILL ALLOW ATHENA USERS TO VARY THE INITIAL STATE OF THEIR SYSTEM MODEL EASILY WHILEMAINTAINING A SINGLE MODEL DATA BASE. POSSIBLE ENHANCEMENTSTO THE PROTOTYPE THAT MIGHT EXTEND THE USEFULNESS OF THE ATHENA WORKSTATION WELL BE EXPLORED FOR POSSIBLE PHASE II WORK. SEVERAL METHODS OF POSTPROCESSING COULD BE DEVELOPED THAT WOULD FACILITATE THE REVIEW OF ATHENA RESULTS. THESE INCLUDE AUTOMATIC READING OF ATHENA OUTPUT, DISPLAY OF RESULTS ON X-Y PLOTS OR ON SYSTEM DIAGRAMS, AND COLOR MIMIC DISPLAYS OF TRANSIENT RESULTS. RULE-BASED EXPERT SYSTEMS COULD BE USED TO AID THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODELS AND PROVIDE ASSISTANCE IN INTERPRETING ANALYSIS RESULTS. EIKON/ATHENA COULD ULTIMATELY BE MERGED WITH A MICROCOMPUTER VERSION OF ATHENA TO BECOME AN INTEGRATED WORKSTATION. THE PROTOTYPE WILL DEMONSTRATE THE FEASIBILITY OF THE PROJECT, PROVIDE A USER FRIENDLY ATHENA WORKSTATION ENVIRONMENT, AND PROVIDE THE FRAMEWORK FOR FUTURE DEVELOPMENT.