Abstract
Neutron noise is a natural phenomenon in nuclear reactors. Hence, its investigation plays a significant role in nuclear reactor physics and safety-related issues. While neutron noise could have various origins, the proposed work focuses on those induced by fuel assembly vibration in hexagonal cores. To this aim, a 3D neutron noise simulator has been developed based on the multi-point kinetics equations for a hexagonal geometry coupled with the expanded multi-nodal approach as a thermal-hydraulic model. Employing these models, the neutron noise was analyzed in the time domain to provide the advantage of modeling non-linearities. This simulator is capable of simultaneous simulation of vibrating fuel assemblies with various vibrational characteristics, in particular, mode. It features the capability of neutron noise modeling at both the nuclear data generation level and the level of the neutronic calculations. The validity of the model is demonstrated by a transient accident and a noise problem. The outcomes are compared to reference data, showing good agreement. Then, to further study noise responses, several scenarios encircling various vibrating fuel assemblies in different situations are simulated. These experiments prove the appropriate performance of the proposed simulator for modeling and analyzing neutron noise in hexagonal cores.
Published Version
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