Numerical simulation of stochastic point kinetic equation in the dynamical system of nuclear reactor

Abstract

In the present paper, the numerical approximation methods, applied to efficiently calculate the solution for stochastic point kinetic equations (Hetrick, 1993; Kinard and Allen, 2004) in nuclear reactor dynamics, are investigated. A system of Itô stochastic differential equations has been analyzed to model the neutron density and the delayed neutron precursors in a point nuclear reactor. The resulting system of Itô stochastic differential equations are solved over each time-step size. The methods are verified by considering different initial conditions, experimental data and over constant reactivities. The computational results indicate that the methods are simple and suitable for solving stochastic point kinetic equations. In this article, a numerical investigation is made in order to observe the random oscillations in neutron and precursor population dynamics in subcritical and critical reactors.