Transactions of the Korean Nuclear Society Autumn Meeting Jeju, Korea, October 21-22, 2010
In the calculation of power distributions and multiplication factors in a nuclear reactor, the Finite Difference Method (FDM) and the nodal methods are primarily used. These methods are, however, limited to particular geometries and lack general application involving arbitrary geometries. The Finite Element Method (FEM) can be employed for arbitrary geometry application and there are numerous FEM codes to solve the neutron diffusion equation or the Sn transport equation. The diffusion based FEM codes have the drawback of inferior accuracy while the Sn based ones require a considerable computing time. This work here is to seek a compromise between these two by employing the simplified P3 (SP3) method for arbitrary geometry applications. Sufficient accuracy with affordable computing time and resources would be achieved with this choice of approximate transport solution when compared to full FEM based Pn or Sn solutions. For now only 2-D solver is considered
