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Title: Least-Squares PN Formulation of the Transport Equation Using Self-Adjoint-Angular-Flux Consistent Boundary Conditions

Conference ·
OSTI ID:1357917

In this paper, we study the Least-Squares (LS) PN form of the transport equation compatible with voids [1] in the context of Continuous Finite Element Methods (CFEM).We first deriveweakly imposed boundary conditions which make the LS weak formulation equivalent to the Self-Adjoint Angular Flux (SAAF) variational formulation with a void treatment [2], in the particular case of constant cross-sections and a uniform mesh. We then implement this method in Rattlesnake with the Multiphysics Object Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) framework [3] using a spherical harmonics (PN) expansion to discretize in angle. We test our implementation using the Method of Manufactured Solutions (MMS) and find the expected convergence behavior both in angle and space. Lastly, we investigate the impact of the global non-conservation of LS by comparing the method with SAAF on a heterogeneous test problem.

Research Organization:
Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
DOE Contract Number:
DE-AC07-05ID14517
OSTI ID:
1357917
Report Number(s):
INL/CON-15-36402
Resource Relation:
Conference: PHYSOR 2016 - Unifying Theory and Experiments in the 21st Century, Sun Valley, Idaho, USA, May 1–5, 2016
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English