Boundary condition free homogenization and evaluation of its performance in fast reactor core analysis

Maruyama, Shuhei

Proceedings of International Conference on Physics of Reactors 2022 (PHYSOR 2022) (Internet), 10 Pages, 2022/05

This paper proposes a new homogenization method, "Boundary Condition Free Homogenization (BCFH)". The traditional homogenization method separates the core calculation and the cell (assembly) calculation by assuming a specific boundary condition or a peripheral region in the cell calculation. Nevertheless, there are ambiguities and approximation in these assumptions, and they can also cause a decline in accuracy. BCFH aims to avoid these problems and improve the accuracy in the cell calculation such as homogenization. We imposed the conditions that the physical quantities in the cell related to the reaction rate preservation is preserved for any incoming partial current, during the homogenization. That is, the response matrices of cell average (or total) flux and outgoing partial current, to be the same form between heterogeneous and homogeneous system. As a result, homogenized parameters, such as cross-sections, superhomgenization factors, and discontinuity factors, are no longer dependent on a specific boundary condition. The new homogenized parameters obtained in this way are extended from the conventional vector form to the matrix form in BCFH. To investigate the performance of BCFH, numerical tests are done for the simplified models which originates in 750MW-class sodium-cooled fast reactor with MOX fuel core in Japan. It is found that BCFH is particularly effective in evaluating control rod reactivity worth and reaction rate distribution, compared to the traditional method. We conclude that the BCFH can be a promising homogenization concept for core neutronic analysis.

Hexagonal response matrix using symmetries

Annals of Nuclear Energy, 18(12), p.705 - 722, 1991/00

https://doi.org/10.1016/0306-4549(91)90044-X

no abstracts in English

Response matrix of symmetric nodes with absorber rods

Annals of Nuclear Energy, 14(8), p.451 - 454, 1987/08

https://doi.org/10.1016/0306-4549(87)90110-1

no abstracts in English