A numerical validation between the neutron transport and diffusion theories for a spatial kinetics problem

Abstract

In this paper, a comparative analysis of numerical results of the neutron transport and diffusion theories for steady-state and transient multigroup problems is presented. The neutron transport equation is known as the one that best describes the behavior of the neutron population in a nuclear reactor. However, due to the difficulty of working with its complete form, other models are considered as approximations to this equation. One such approximation is the neutron diffusion equation, which uses the Fick's Law. It is well known, however, that the diffusion model may not work well under specific conditions. The objective of this work is to establish a quantitative comparison of numerical results obtained for the K dominant eigenvalue and for the scalar fluxes from the two theories and to analyze the influence of the model on the results.

Keywords

• neutron transport theory
• neutron diffusion theory
• comparative analysis
• K dominant eigenvalue