Los Alamos National Laboratory, LA-10983-MS UC-32, 1987, 195 pp.
This report is a revision of the chapter titled Transport calculations for Nuclear Reactors, written by the authors for Volume 1 of the three-volume CRC Handbook of Nuclear Reactors Calculations, Y. Ronen, Editor, published by the CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida (1986).
This report is for the serious user of discrete ordinates transport computer codes for performing nuclear analysis calculations.
The use of computer codes to perform nuclear analysis calculations costs money. Transport calculations are more expensive than diffusion calculations. Although continuing development in computer hardware and codes (software)have reduced the expense of transport calculations to more practical and acceptable levels than in the past, transport calculations are still more expensive than diffusion calculations. Moreover, there arises the question of whether a transport calculation must adequately describe the physics in a given problem or whether a diffusion calculation will suffice. To answer this question intelligently and to use a computer code effectively and properly requires understanding the physics modeled by a computer code and the numerical techniques used in the code. The purpose of this report is to provide the nuclear analyst with information about the use of deterministic particle transport codes for nuclear analysis calculation.Contents.
Abstract.
Introduction.
Mathematical description: the analytic equation: The balance equation (linear Boltzmann transport equation). Coordinate systems and divergence operator forms. Boundary conditions. Spherical harmonics expansion of the source terms. The adjoint equation.
Numerical description: The energy variable- the multigroup method. Discretization of the angular variable. Spatial discretization. Source iteration.
Numerical details and features: Angular quadrature for discrete ordinates codes. Spatial discretization methods. Acceleration of the inner iteration. Acceleration of the outer iterations. Search capabilities in discrete ordinates codes.
Considerations in choosing a code.
Typical discrete ordinates transport codes.
Guidance for the user.
References.
Appendix.
Index.
