Resumen de Integration methods for the time dependent neutron diffusion equation and other approximations of the neutron transport equation

A. Carreño

• One of the most important targets in nuclear safety analyses is the fast and accurate computation of the power evolution inside of the reactor core. The distribution of neutrons can be described by the neutron transport Boltzmann equation. The solution of this equation for realistic nuclear reactors is not straightforward, and therefore, numerical approximations must be considered.

  First, the thesis is focused on the attainment of the solution for several steady-state problems associated with neutron diffusion problem: the $\lambda$-modes, the $\gamma$-modes and the $\alpha$-modes problems. A high order finite element method is used for the spatial discretization. Several characteristics of each type of spectral problem are compared and analyzed on different reactors.

  Thereafter, several eigenvalue solvers and strategies are investigated to compute efficiently the algebraic eigenvalue problems obtained from the discretization. Most works devoted to solve the neutron diffusion equation are made for the approximation of two energy groups and without considering up-scattering. The main property of the proposed methodologies is that they depend on neither the reactor geometry, the type of eigenvalue problem nor the number of energy groups.

  After that, the solution of the steady-state simplified spherical harmonics equations is obtained. The implementation of these equations has two main differences with respect to the neutron diffusion. First, the spatial discretization is made at level of pin. Thus, different meshes are studied. Second, the number of energy groups is commonly bigger than two. Therefore, block strategies are developed to optimize the computation of the algebraic eigenvalue problems associated.

  Finally, an updated modal method is implemented to integrate the time-dependent neutron diffusion equation. Modal methods based on the expansion of the different spatial modes are presented and compared in several types of transients. Moreover, an adaptive time-step control is developed that avoids setting the time-step with a fixed value and it is adapted according to several error estimations.