4.4. Naming conventions of output files and parameter limits

When executing DCHAIN, depending on the method and output options, around 10 baseline output files are produced. The file names are dependent on how DCHAIN is executed and are listed in Table 4.4.1. The “legacy” way of executing DCHAIN involves just invoking its executable on the command line with the name of the input file (\(name\)), optionally printing the echoed output to its own file (dchain.exe <\(name\)>\(name\).lst). When running DCHAIN standalone like this, the output files have set names. The “modern” intended way to execute DCHAIN is by using the batch/shell script located in the <PHITS-install>/dchain-sp/bin/ directory (dchain.bat\(name\)). These scripts automatically run DCHAIN and ANGEL and then rename the output files to resemble the input filename with an added descriptive extension. For example, an input file named example.txt (or just example) would have all of its output files named example.*.

Table 4.4.1 DCHAIN output files

File name		Description/Contents
Batch	Standalone
*.act	spd-act.out	Output file for all important simulated results including all nuclides produced with their information (inventory/quantity, activity, decay heat by particle type, half-life, and dose rate) and the resulting gamma spectra for each desired output time
*.ang	angel-data.ang	ANGEL input file for plotting activity, decay heat, and dose rate at the desired output times
*.gsd	out-gsdef	MCNP-formatted source cards (SDEF) for the photon flux spectra at each desired output time
*.pht	out-phits or gamma_tX.pht	PHITS-formatted \(\gamma\) source cards for the photon flux spectra at each desired output time
*_RI.pht	out-risrc or RIsrc_tX.pht	PHITS-formatted RI source cards for the decay emission spectra at each desired output time
*.mat	matcards.mat or matcards_tX.mat	PHITS/MCNP-formatted materials cards containing the nuclide inventories as atom fractions
*.dcs	out-dcychains	Change in nuclide inventory in each calculation time step with the schemes of significant contributing decay chains illustrated
*.gso	out-gamsporg	Summary of photon-producing product nuclides at each desired output time separated by region and rough energy bin ranges
*.alr	out-allreg	Nuclide activities and decay heats summed over all regions printed at each output time step
*.yld	yield.out	Nuclide production yields in each region at the end of irradiation and cooling in each region
*.lst	*.lst	Input echo and summary file that restates values received from the PHITS calculation, provides a check of nuclides present in the decay library file, and lists high-level summary information (total activity, decay heat, and CPU time) in each time step
*_pxy.ang	plot_xy-out	ANGEL input file for 2D XY plane plots of activity in each z-axis slice of an xyz mesh geometry
*_pxz.ang	plot_xz-out	ANGEL input file for 2D XZ plane plots of activity in each y-axis slice of an xyz mesh geometry
*_pyz.ang	plot_yz-out	ANGEL input file for 2D YZ plane plots of activity in each x-axis slice of an xyz mesh geometry
*.eps	n/a	ANGEL-generated postscript files plotting values from corresponding *.ang ANGEL input files.
*.foam	foamout1_tX.foam	OpenFOAM formatted file for tetrahedral geometries.
*.csv	foamout2_tX.csv	CSV formatted file for tetrahedral geometries.

Files of the format *_tX.* are generated for each requested output time ITOUT. Only one of each of the other files (those without *_tX.*) will be generated.

There are a number of parameters which set hard limits within DCHAIN not already described within the input parameter section of this manual; the most significant of these are listed below in Table 4.4.2. Changing these requires recompilation of DCHAIN. They can be found in dchain-sp/src/include/cm_inputs (and cm_inputm for maxmat).

Table 4.4.2 DCHAIN parameter limits

Name	Value	Description
maxitm	1000	Maximum number of irradiation/cooling time steps or output times.
maxmat	100	Maximum number of materials that can be listed in Card 9 for mesh geometries only. (This is just the upper limit of IMAT.)
maxtgn	250	Maximum number of target nuclides given by input data.
maxdpl	251	Maximum path length (in characters) to the DCHAIN data folder provided in dch_link.dat (set by file(21) in PHITS).
maxhl	1350	Maximum length of a record/line in the DCHAIN input file.