MCNP coupled with post-processing software application development

Background: Neutron flux and thermal distributed computing are vital parts of the process of nuclear fusion reactor design, its representative calculation software MCNP is based on the Monte Carlo method. However, the output of MCNP is a text file, thus the results are not conveniently and visually represented by manual analysis, and cannot be directly imported into post-processing software such as Ensight, Paraview and ANSYS for processing. Purpose: In order to enhance the efficiency of data analysis of MCNP output, a coupling program between the MCNP and post-processing software is proposed and implemented in this paper. Methods: The Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (VS2010) is taken as a development platform, the coupling program is developed using C/C++ programming language to perform numerical/logic operations and various kinds of data format conversion required by post-processing software such as Ensight, Paraview and ANSYS, etc. Results: The coupling program was tested via 'while-box' method, logical operations of MCNP calculation results, and data format conversion of MCNP data file processed by this program are satisfied for the requirement of the post-processing software for visual analysis. Conclusion: It provides effective support tools that bridge the connection between MCNP and the post-processing software for practical engineering design. (authors)