Infinite Lattice Model (No large file history)

[ZoeRichter]

Summary of changes

This is an improved version of the infinite lattice model PR. I have both removed any large files from the commit history and simplified the BCC unit cell models, cutting down on the number of files in general. This time I also included the bash script I've been using to run everything/move files/etc.

Types of changes

• Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
• New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
• Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to change)
• I have read the CONTRIBUTING document.
• My code follows the code style of this project.
• My change requires a change to the documentation.
• I have updated the documentation accordingly.
• I have added tests to cover my changes.
• All new and existing tests passed.

[katyhuff]

Thanks @ZoeRichter , this is getting better.
Your code is very "WET" which is the antithesis of the DRY principle. Don't repeat yourself. I think you could reduce the code in this PR by a factor of 10 just by indexing things instead of using numbered strings everywhere.

[katyhuff]

Is this indentation right?

[ZoeRichter]

Yes - the second line is still part of the 'export_to_materials' term

[katyhuff]

Is the name of this variable the only thing that's different between these various bcc_model.py files?
If so, maybe the number of days can be a input variable for this script and we could instead have many fewer bcc_model.py files in the repo ... Maybe that's not helpful, but it's always worth thinking about how to avoid replicated code (because replicated code replicates bugs -- see Robert C. Martin, Clean Code).

[ZoeRichter]

No, the depletion step the compositions are based on are different each time, which is why I redefine that single material each time. Materials that all the bcc models share are made by the gen_inputs script one level up, then pulled in here. That way, the full list of materials can be used by the openmc model when the geometry information is read in.

[katyhuff]

Is this indentation right?
The code in this gen_inputs.py script seems pretty similar to the code in the bcc_inputs.py. Maybe some of these tasks should be callable modules that you can import instead of copy/pasting the same code into multiple files?

[katyhuff]

Variable names with numbers in them are usually an indication that a data structure that is indexed by those numbers would be superior. This repeated code could be reduced if you create dictionary of dictionaries (passes) that's indexed by the pass number (that is, the keys would be 1,12,23, etc. and the values would be what you are currently calling pass01, pass12, etc.). Then, you could loop through the major key/value pairs before looping through the minor ones. That would allow you to collapse this whole set of multiple loops into one. Consider turning these minor loops into a function of their own as well and it will simplify things.

[katyhuff]

The same applies to tot_time01 etc.

[katyhuff]

Same comment here. Here is what I mean (though there may be some syntax errors below, this is the idea.)

ucos = {}
pass_idxs = [1, 12, 23, 34, 45, 56] 
for idx in pass_idxs:
  mat_name = 'UCO_' + str(idx).zfill(2)  
  ucos[idx]= openmc.Material(name=mat_name)
  ucos[idx].set_density('g/cm3', 10.4)
  ucos[idx].add_components(passes[idx], percent_type = 'ao')

[katyhuff]

Is this all commented out because it's wrong? If it's not ready for prime time, let's not merge it, eh?

[katyhuff]

This cries out for loops.

[katyhuff]

loop, DRY.

[katyhuff]

there are better ways.

DRY.
create a list of strings without explicitly typing each of them and create a loop that runs through them. There are great shell commands like find and such that can be helpful for this. See the shell chapter in the book or check out the software carpentry workshop on the topic. You should be able to do most of this in two or 3 lines.

[katyhuff]

If you do nothing else, please make this if else statement a function that takes the range_start and range_end as variables so you don't copy paste this whole thing a dozen times in one file.

[ZoeRichter]

Added loops to condense parts of the input generating scripts, mostly for materials.