Using Cartesian grid cut-cell methods to simulate detonations in nuclear containment buildings

We report on our experience using Cartesian grid cut-cell methods for simu- lating detonations in complex geometry in large scale industrial settings. We first briefly introduce the idea of ``cut-cell'' methods for treating geometry on Cartesian grids. Then we run several simluations in EBCHOMBO, a cut- cell code built on CHOMBO and developed at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, CA. Our results show that the cut-cell methods are comparable in accuracy to mapped grid approaches to handling geometry, and just as efficient. We also establish the parallel performance of the code and discuss briefly the AMR capabilities.

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