A Novel Boundary Element Method for Nonuniform Neutron Diffusion Problems

Abstract

An advanced boundary element formulation has been proposed to solve the neutron diffusion equation (NDE) for a ‘nonuniform’ system. The continuous spatial distribution of a nuclear constant is assumed to be described using a polynomial function. Part of the constant term in the polynomial is left on the left-hand-side of the NDE, while the remainding is added to the fission source term on the right-hand-side to create a fictitious source. When the neutron flux is also expanded using a polynomial, the boundary integral equation corresponding to the NDE contains a domain integral related to the polynomial source. This domain integral is transformed into an infinite series of boundary integrals, by repeated application of the particular solution for a Poisson-type equation with the polynomial source. In two-dimensional, one-group test calculations for rectangular domains, the orthogonality of Legendre polynomials was used to determine the polynomial expansion coefficients. The results show good agreement with those obtained from finite difference computations in which the nonuniformity was approximated by a large number of material regions.