Time-dependent simplified spherical harmonics formulations for a nuclear reactor system

The steady-state simplified spherical harmonics equations (SPN equations) are a higher order approximation to the neutron transport equations than the neutron diffusion equation that also have reasonable computational demands. This work extends these results for the analysis of transients by compari...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: A. Carreño, A. Vidal-Ferràndiz, D. Ginestar, G. Verdú
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2021-12-01
Series:Nuclear Engineering and Technology
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1738573321003314
Description
Summary:The steady-state simplified spherical harmonics equations (SPN equations) are a higher order approximation to the neutron transport equations than the neutron diffusion equation that also have reasonable computational demands. This work extends these results for the analysis of transients by comparing of two formulations of time-dependent SPN equations considering different treatments for the time derivatives of the field moments. The first is the full system of equations and the second is a diffusive approximation of these equations that neglects the time derivatives of the odd moments. The spatial discretization of these methodologies is made by using a high order finite element method. For the time discretization, a semi-implicit Euler method is used. Numerical results show that the diffusive formulation for the time-dependent simplified spherical harmonics equations does not present a relevant loss of accuracy while being more computationally efficient than the full system.
ISSN:1738-5733