Goal-oriented multi-collision source algorithm for discrete ordinates transport calculation

Abstract

Discretization errors are extremely challenging conundrums of discrete ordinates calculations for radiation transport problems with void regions. In previous work, we have presented a multi-collision source method (MCS) to overcome discretization errors, but the efficiency needs to be improved. This paper proposes a goal-oriented algorithm for the MCS method to adaptively determine the partitioning of the geometry and dynamically change the angular quadrature in remaining iterations. The importance factor based on the adjoint transport calculation obtains the response function to get a problem-dependent, goal-oriented spatial decomposition. The difference in the scalar fluxes from one high-order quadrature set to a lower one provides the error estimation as a driving force behind the dynamic quadrature. The goal-oriented algorithm allows optimizing by using ray-tracing technology or high-order quadrature sets in the first few iterations and arranging the integration order of the remaining iterations from high to low. The algorithm has been implemented in the 3D transport code ARES and was tested on the Kobayashi benchmarks. The numerical results show a reduction in computation time on these problems for the same desired level of accuracy as compared to the standard ARES code, and it has clear advantages over the traditional MCS method in solving radiation transport problems with reflective boundary conditions.