Submission Title
Application of Advanced Computational Techniques for Efficient Solution of Deterministic Neutron Transport at BARC
Presentation Type
Invited
Start Date
16-12-2018 4:00 PM
Abstract
In a nuclear reactor, the primary task is to follow the neutron distribution in the core, in order to maintain and control the nuclear fission chain reaction. The fundamental equation governing the average behaviour of neutrons is given by the linear form of the Boltzmann transport equation. The simulations are usually carried out in two steps: lattice and whole core. The state of the art is to perform whole core calculations without the spatial homogenization and with very fine energy- group structure. Such calculations are extremely CPU-time intensive and will require the best of modelling, solution algorithms and massive parallelization. It is here that the advanced computational methods play critical role. One such class of methods which has grown rapidly in recent times is the Krylov subspace methods with significantly better convergence properties and suitability for parallelization. The application of Krylov methods has shown benefits in both linear as well as eigenvalue system setups in neutron transport and also in synthetic accelerations. Another class of methods is known as the Sub-space Iteration method, or the simultaneous vector iteration algorithm. An additional benefit of this method is that it can find a set of most dominant higher k- modes rather than just the fundamental mode.
The proposed lecture will outline the application of the advanced solution schemes for deterministic neutron transport and also briefly talk about their application in Monte Carlo neutron transport and simpler diffusion formulation. The talk will also outline the neutron transport code ATES3 developed in-house at BARC which utilizes several of above described schemes. ATES3 has been used in various neutron transport analysis studies such as AHWR Critical Facility, detector flux in PFBR in-core shields, Beam-hole location flux, Yalina subcritical benchmark analysis etc. In most of these analyses, use of advanced solution methods has resulted in significant benefits.
Recommended Citation
Gupta, Anurag (2018). "Application of Advanced Computational Techniques for Efficient Solution of Deterministic Neutron Transport at BARC," Symposium on Advanced Sensors and Modeling Techniques for Nuclear Reactor Safety.
Application of Advanced Computational Techniques for Efficient Solution of Deterministic Neutron Transport at BARC
In a nuclear reactor, the primary task is to follow the neutron distribution in the core, in order to maintain and control the nuclear fission chain reaction. The fundamental equation governing the average behaviour of neutrons is given by the linear form of the Boltzmann transport equation. The simulations are usually carried out in two steps: lattice and whole core. The state of the art is to perform whole core calculations without the spatial homogenization and with very fine energy- group structure. Such calculations are extremely CPU-time intensive and will require the best of modelling, solution algorithms and massive parallelization. It is here that the advanced computational methods play critical role. One such class of methods which has grown rapidly in recent times is the Krylov subspace methods with significantly better convergence properties and suitability for parallelization. The application of Krylov methods has shown benefits in both linear as well as eigenvalue system setups in neutron transport and also in synthetic accelerations. Another class of methods is known as the Sub-space Iteration method, or the simultaneous vector iteration algorithm. An additional benefit of this method is that it can find a set of most dominant higher k- modes rather than just the fundamental mode.
The proposed lecture will outline the application of the advanced solution schemes for deterministic neutron transport and also briefly talk about their application in Monte Carlo neutron transport and simpler diffusion formulation. The talk will also outline the neutron transport code ATES3 developed in-house at BARC which utilizes several of above described schemes. ATES3 has been used in various neutron transport analysis studies such as AHWR Critical Facility, detector flux in PFBR in-core shields, Beam-hole location flux, Yalina subcritical benchmark analysis etc. In most of these analyses, use of advanced solution methods has resulted in significant benefits.
