DOE OSTI2017
The higher eigenpairs of the neutron transport (or diffusion) equation are useful in core flux distribution reconstruction, transient analysis, stability analysis, and loading pattern optimization. There are various methods for the calculation of higher eigenpairs, such as the power iteration method with filtering technique, the Generalized Modified Power Method (GMPM), the power iteration method with innovative boundary conditions for symmetric cores, and Krylov subspace methods. In regard to Krylov subspace methods, the Implicitly Restarted Arnoldi Method (IRAM) and ORTHOMIN were implemented to calculate higher eigenpairs for both transport and diffusion equations. In Warsa's work, however, there was a significant drawback that problems with energy upscatter could not be treated efficiently. In Modak's work, the mode to which his method was likely to converge depended on the shape of initial guess flux, and only one mode could be computed each time, making it impractical for real use. Furthermore, the computational burden for higher eigenpairs is generally much larger than for only the first eigenpair, especially for neutron transport equations. Therefore, the implementation of parallel computation for higher eigenpairs is essential to improve the efficiency, and no such work has been reported in literature so far. In this summary, we propose an innovative method to calculate higher eigenpairs of the neutron transport equation based on high performance computation. In this method, 2D Matrix Method of Characteristic (MMOC) is used to discretize the neutron transport equation; IRAM is used to evaluate higher eigenpairs; spatial domain decomposition is used to realize parallel computation. The highlight of this method is using the MGMD PGMRES (Multi-Group and Multi-Domain coupled Parallel Generalized Minimal Residual Method) algorithm to simultaneously accelerate the upscatter iterations and the inner interface angular fluxes iterations, avoiding the drawback in Warsa's method and the efficiency problem of conventional Jacobi iteration. To the best of our knowledge, our work represents the first application of IRAM based on domain decomposition for higher eigenpairs.
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗