Reduced-Order Modelling with Domain Decomposition Applied to Multi-Group Neutron Transport

Abstract

Solving the neutron transport equations is a demanding computational challenge. This paper combines reduced-order modelling with domain decomposition to develop an approach that can tackle such problems. The idea is to decompose the domain of a reactor, form basis functions locally in each sub-domain and construct a reduced-order model from this. Several different ways of constructing the basis functions for local sub-domains are proposed, and a comparison is given with a reduced-order model that is formed globally. A relatively simple one-dimensional slab reactor provides a test case with which to investigate the capabilities of the proposed methods. The results show that domain decomposition reduced-order model methods perform comparably with the global reduced-order model when the total number of reduced variables in the system is the same with the potential for the offline computational cost to be significantly less expensive.

Keywords

• reduced-order modelling
• domain decomposition
• model reduction
• neutron diffusion equation
• reactor physics