Comparison of Direct and Adjoint k and α-Eigenfunctions

Autor: Vito Vitali, Florent Chevallier, Alexis Jinaphanh, Andrea Zoia, Patrick Blaise
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Nuclear Engineering, Vol 2, Iss 2, Pp 132-151 (2021)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2673-4362
DOI: 10.3390/jne2020014
Popis: Modal expansions based on k-eigenvalues and α-eigenvalues are commonly used in order to investigate the reactor behaviour, each with a distinct point of view: the former is related to fission generations, whereas the latter is related to time. Well-known Monte Carlo methods exist to compute the direct k or α fundamental eigenmodes, based on variants of the power iteration. The possibility of computing adjoint eigenfunctions in continuous-energy transport has been recently implemented and tested in the development version of TRIPOLI-4®, using a modified version of the Iterated Fission Probability (IFP) method for the adjoint α calculation. In this work we present a preliminary comparison of direct and adjoint k and α eigenmodes by Monte Carlo methods, for small deviations from criticality. When the reactor is exactly critical, i.e., for k0 = 1 or equivalently α0 = 0, the fundamental modes of both eigenfunction bases coincide, as expected on physical grounds. However, for non-critical systems the fundamental k and α eigenmodes show significant discrepancies.
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