Comparison between triangular and hexagonal modeling of a hexagonal-structured reactor core using box method

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A hexagonal-structured reactor core (e.g. VVER-type) is mostly modeled by structured triangular and hexagonal mesh zones. Although both the triangular and hexagonal models give good approximations over the neutronic calculation of the core, there are some differences between them that seem necessary to be clarified. For this purpose, the neutronic calculations of a hexagonal-structured reactor core have to be performed using the structured triangular and hexagonal meshes based on box method of discretisation and then the results of two models should be benchmarked in different cases. In this paper, the box method of discretisation is derived for triangular and hexagonal meshes. Then, two 2-D 2-group static simulators for triangular and hexagonal geometries (called TRIDIF-2 and HEXDIF-2, respectively) are developed using the box method. The results are benchmarked against the well-known CITATION computer code in case of a VVER-1000 reactor core. Furthermore, the relative powers calculated by the TRIDIF-2 and HEXDIF-2 along with the ones obtained by the CITATION code are compared with the verified results which have been presented in the Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) of the aforementioned reactor. Different benchmark cases revealed the reliability of the box method in contrast with the CITATION code. Furthermore, it is shown that the triangular modeling of the core is more acceptable compared with the hexagonal one.