Development of Code, PNFENT, Based on Using Finite Elements for Neutron Transport
A variational treatment of the finite element method for neutron transport is used based on a version of the even parity Boltzman equation for the general case of anisotropic scattering and sources. The theory of maximum principles is based on the Cauchy-Schwartz inequality and the properties of a leakage operator G and a removal operator C. For system with extraneous sources a maximum principle is used in boundary free form to ease finite element computations. The global error of an approximate variational solution is shown. The energy dependence of the angular flux is treated by the multi-group method. In this paper the spatial dependence of the angular flux is given in a finite element representation. The directional dependence of angular flux is represented preferably by a spherical harmonic expansion. The above method has been developed and implemented in the finite element program PNFENT. A homogenous slab of a pure absorber along edge-cell and a two dimensional problems are solved with an accuracy as good as the best problem techniques.