• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권9호
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• pp.3181-3204
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• 2022

The variational nodal method for solving the neutron transport equation has evolved over 40 years. Based on a functional form of the Boltzmann neutron transport equation, the method now comprises a complete set of variants that can be employed for different problems. This paper presents an extensive review of the development of the variational nodal method. The emphasis is on summarizing the whole theoretical system rather than validating the methodologies. The paper covers the variational nodal formulation of the Boltzmann neutron transport equation, the Ritz procedure for various application purposes, the derivation of boundary conditions, the extension for adjoint and perturbation calculations, and treatments for anisotropic scattering sources. Acceleration approaches for constructing response matrices and solving the resulting system of algebraic equations are also presented.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제49권5호
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• pp.920-927
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• 2017

With ever-advancing computer technology, the Monte Carlo (MC) neutron transport calculation is expanding its application area to nuclear reactor transient analysis. Dynamic MC (DMC) neutron tracking for transient analysis requires efficient algorithms for delayed neutron generation, neutron population control, and initial condition modeling. In this paper, a new MC steady-state simulation method based on time-dependent MC neutron tracking is proposed for steady-state initial condition modeling; during this process, prompt neutron sources and delayed neutron precursors for the DMC transient simulation can easily be sampled. The DMC method, including the proposed time-dependent DMC steady-state simulation method, has been implemented in McCARD and applied for two-dimensional core kinetics problems in the time-dependent neutron transport benchmark C5G7-TD. The McCARD DMC calculation results show good agreement with results of a deterministic transport analysis code, nTRACER.

• 한국압력기기공학회 논문집
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• 제10권1호
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• pp.107-112
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• 2014

The Code of Federal Regulations, Title 10, Part 50, Appendix H requires surveillance program for reactor pressure vessel(RPV) that the peak neutron fluence at the end of the design life of the vessel will exceed $1.0E+17n/cm^2$ (E>1.0MeV). 2D/1D Synthesis method based on DORT 3.1 transport calculation code has been widely used to determine fast neutron(E>1.0MeV) fluence exposure to RPV in the beltline region. RAPTOR-M3G(RApid Parallel Transport Of Radiation-Multiple 3D Geometries) performing full 3D transport calculation was developed by Westinghouse and KRIST(Korea Reactor Integrity Surveillance Technology) and applied for the evaluations of In-Vessel and Ex-Vessel neutron dosimetry. The reaction rates from measurement and calculation were compared and the results show good agreements each other.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제52권4호
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• pp.681-688
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• 2020

The telegrapher's theory was used to develop a new formulation for the neutron noise equation. Telegrapher's equation is supposed to demonstrate a more realistic approximation for neutron transport phenomena, especially in comparison to the diffusion theory. The physics behind such equation implies that the signal propagation speed is finite, instead of the infinite as in the case of ordinary diffusion. This paper presents the theory and results of the development of a new method for calculation of the neutron noise using the telegrapher's equation as its basis. In order to investigate the differences and strengths of the new method against the diffusion based neutron noise, a comparison was done between the behaviors of two methods. The neutron noise based on SN transport considered as a precision measuring point. The Green's function technique was used to calculate the neutron noise based on telegrapher's and diffusion methods as well as the transport. The amplitude and phase of Green's function associated with the properties of the medium and frequency of the noise source were obtained and their behavior was compared to the results of the transport. It was observed, the differences in some cases might be considerable. The effective speed of propagation for the noise perturbations were evaluated accordingly, resulting in considerable deviations in some cases.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제54권11호
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• pp.4280-4295
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• 2022

In this paper, a new multi-group neutron-gamma transport calculation code system STRAUM-MATXST for complicated geometrical problems is introduced and its development status including numerical tests is presented. In this code system, the MATXST (MATXS-based Cross Section Processor for S_N Transport) code generates multi-group neutron and gamma cross sections by processing MATXS format libraries generated using NJOY and the STRAUM (S_N Transport for Radiation Analysis with Unstructured Meshes) code performs multi-group neutron-gamma coupled transport calculation using tetrahedral meshes. In particular, this work presents the recent implementation and its test results of the Krylov subspace methods (i.e., Bi-CGSTAB and GMRES(m)) with preconditioners using DSA (Diffusion Synthetic Acceleration) and TSA (Transport Synthetic Acceleration). In addition, the Krylov subspace methods for accelerating the energy-group coupling iteration through thermal up-scatterings are implemented with new multi-group block DSA and TSA preconditioners in STRAUM.

• 한국초전도학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국초전도학회 2009년도 Korea Superconductivity Society Meeting 2009
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• pp.105-105
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• 2009

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권7호
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• pp.2712-2722
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• 2023

For an accurate and efficient time-dependent Monte Carlo (TDMC) neutron transport analysis, several advanced methods are newly developed and implemented in the Seoul National University Monte Carlo code, McCARD. For an efficient control of the neutron population, a dynamic weight window method is devised to adjust the weight bounds of the implicit capture in the time bin-by-bin TDMC simulations. A moving geometry module is developed to model a continuous insertion or withdrawal of a control rod. Especially, the history-based batch method for the TDMC calculations is developed to predict the unbiased variance of a bin-wise mean estimate. The developed methods are verified for three-dimensional problems in the C5G7-TD benchmark, showing good agreements with results from a deterministic neutron transport analysis code, nTRACER, within the statistical uncertainty bounds. In addition, the TDMC analysis capability implemented in McCARD is demonstrated to search the optimum detector positions for the pulsed-neutron-source experiments in the Kyoto University Critical Assembly and AGN201K.

• 에너지공학
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.46-52
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• 2007

특정한 방향에 대해 방향중성자속(angular neutron flux)을 정의하는 방향차분 방정식(discrete-ordinates or $S_{N}$ equation)과 달리 방향변수를 구분된 방향영역에 대하여 적분한 값을 사용하고, 해당 방향영역 내에서 방향중성자속이 일정하다고 가정하는 영역상수법(piecewise-constant method)을 개발하였다. 기존 방향차분법과 본 연구에서 개발된 영역상수법을 1계 수송방정식(1'st-order Boltzmann transport equation)과 2계 우성 방정식(even-parity equation)에 적용하여 방향차분 방정식인 $S_{N}$ 방정식과 유사 방향차분방정식($S_{N}$-like equation)인 $PC_{N}$ 방정식을 유도하였다. 우성 방정식에 영역상수법을 적용한 경우 기존 방향차분법의 단점인 광첨두 현상(ray effect)이 현저히 감소함을 확인하였는데 이는 우성 방정식의 혼합 미분항의 기여도가 작아지기 때문인 것으로 판단된다. 이러한 이론은 우성 방정식에서 혼합 미분항이 제거된 단순우성 방정식(simplified even-parity equation)을 사용하는 경우 광첨두 현상이 완전 제거 또는 극단적으로 감소되었던 이전의 결과를 이론적으로 설명한다.

• 에너지공학
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• 제17권4호
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• pp.233-240
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• 2008

최근 새로운 2계 자기 수반형(self-adjoint) 중성자 수송 방정식으로 기존의 우성 및 기성 수송 방정식 외에 SAAF(Self-Adjoint Angular Flux) 수송 방정식이 소개되어, 이에 대한 적절한 경계조건, 수치해법, 정확도 등에 관한 논의가 활발히 진행되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 SAAF 수송 방정식의 수학적, 물리적 의미를 고찰하고 기존의 우성 및 기성 수송 방정식과의 연관성을 명확히 하였으며, Boltzmann 수송 방정식의 1계 차분식에서 2계의 SAAF 수송 방정식의 차분식을 유도하는 방법을 확산 가속법(diffusion synthetic acceleration method)과 함께 소개하였다. 유도된 SAAF 차분법이 계산 효율성과 수송해의 정확도를 증가시킴을 수치결과로 확인하였다.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• 제32권4호
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• pp.168-177
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• 2007

본 논문에서는 노심설계 단계에서 선정된 다양한 노심 장전모형 중에서 압력용기 중성자 조사취화 관점에서 가장 최적의 노심 장전모형을 선정할 수 있도록 신속하게 압력용기 취약위치에 대한 속중성자속을 예측할 수 있는 방법을 제시하였다. 인공신경회로망 기법을 통해 노심 반경방향 및 축방향 출력분포만을 이용하여 압력용기내벽 취약위치에서의 중성자 스펙트럼을 신속하게 평가할 수 있도록 중성자속 가중치를 생산하였고 데이터베이스를 구축하였다. 이 방법은 중성자 수송코드를 이용한 수송계산을 직접 수행하지 않고도 신속하게 압력용기 위치에서의 중성자 조사환경을 평가할 수 있으며 소송코드 결과와 비교하여 상대오차 3.4%이내의 정확도를 보였다.