skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: The infinite medium Green's function for neutron transport in plane geometry 40 years later

Conference · · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States)
OSTI ID:6947398
 [1]
  1. Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)

In 1953, the first of what was supposed to be two volumes on neutron transport theory was published. The monograph, entitled [open quotes]Introduction to the Theory of Neutron Diffusion[close quotes] by Case et al., appeared as a Los Alamos National Laboratory report and was to be followed by a second volume, which never appeared as intended because of the death of Placzek. Instead, Case and Zweifel collaborated on the now classic work entitled Linear Transport Theory 2 in which the underlying mathematical theory of linear transport was presented. The initial monograph, however, represented the coming of age of neutron transport theory, which had its roots in radiative transfer and kinetic theory. In addition, it provided the first benchmark results along with the mathematical development for several fundamental neutron transport problems. In particular, one-dimensional infinite medium Green's functions for the monoenergetic transport equation in plane and spherical geometries were considered complete with numerical results to be used as standards to guide code development for applications. Unfortunately, because of the limited computational resources of the day, some numerical results were incorrect. Also, only conventional mathematics and numerical methods were used because the transport theorists of the day were just becoming acquainted with more modern mathematical approaches. In this paper, Green's function solution is revisited in light of modern numerical benchmarking methods with an emphasis on evaluation rather than theoretical results. The primary motivation for considering the Green's function at this time is its emerging use in solving finite and heterogeneous media transport problems.

OSTI ID:
6947398
Report Number(s):
CONF-931160-; CODEN: TANSAO
Journal Information:
Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States), Vol. 69; Conference: American Nuclear Society (ANS) winter meeting, San Francisco, CA (United States), 14-18 Nov 1993; ISSN 0003-018X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English