Trigonometric Fourier-series solutions of the point reactor kinetics equations

Abstract

In this paper, a new method based on the Fourier series is introduced to obtain approximate solutions to the systems of the point kinetics equations. These systems are stiff involving equations with slowly and rapidly varying components. They are solved numerically using Fourier series expansion over a partition of the total time interval. Approximate solution requires determining the series coefficients over each time step in that partition. These coefficients are determined using the high order derivatives of the dependent variables at the beginning of the time step introducing a system of linear algebraic equations to be solved at each step. The obtained algebraic system is similar to the Vandermonde system. Evaluation of the inverse of the Vandermonde matrix is required to determine the coefficients of the Fourier series. Because the obtained Vandermonde matrix has a special structure, due to the properties of the sine and cosine functions, a new formula is introduced to determine its inverse using standard computations. The new method solves the general linear and non-linear kinetics problems with six groups of delayed neutrons. The validity of the algorithm is tested with five different types of reactivities including step reactivity insertion, ramp input, oscillatory reactivity changes, a reactivity as a function of the neutron density and finally temperature feedback reactivity. Comparisons are made with analytical and conventional numerical methods used to solve the point kinetics equations. The results confirm the theoretical analysis and indicate the validity of the method for all applications considered.