Multilevel Transport Claculations

Abstract

A new model for multigroup transport calculations based on a group dependent spatial representation has been developed. The multilevel method takes advantage of the orthogonality of the energy and space operators, inherent to the structure of the linear transport equation, to decompose the energy domain into subdomains or levels, i.e. , fast, epi thermal and thermal, where suitable spatial approximations are used. The aim of the method is to allow for the use of larger mesh spacings at high neutron energies and, therefore, to cut down the computational cost while preserving the overall accuracy. The method can be easily implemented in today's standard transport codes by introducing small modifications in the computation of the multigroup external source. The multilevel model is of especial interest for the calculation of media containing high thermal absorbers. A variant of this method, based on a nested, multilevel approximation, has been implemented in the APOLLO-II assembly transport code. Comparisons between the multilevel model and the usual multigroup approximation have been made for a PWR poisoned cell and for a thermal neutron barrier used to feed a molten FBR fuel sample. The results show that significant savings in computational times are obtained with the multilevel approximation.