A Comparative Analysis of Neutron Transport Calculations Based on Variational Formulation and Finite Element Approaches

The application of continuous and discontinuous approaches of the finite element method (FEM) to the neutron transport equation (NTE) has been investigated. A comparative algorithm for analyzing the capability of various types of numerical solutions to the NTE based on variational formulation and discontinuous finite element method (DFEM) has been developed. The developed module is coupled to the program discontinuous finite element method for neutron (DISFENT). Each variational principle (VP) is applied to an example with drastic changes in the distribution of neutron flux density, and the obtained results of the continuous and discontinuous finite element (DFE) have been compared. The comparison between the level of accuracy of each approach using new module of DISFENT program has been performed based on the fine mesh solutions of the multi-PN (MPN) approximation. The obtained results of conjoint principles (CPs) have been demonstrated to be very accurate in comparison to other VPs. The reduction in the number of required meshes for solving the problem is considered as the main advantage of this principle. Finally, the spatial additivity to the context of the spherical harmonics has been implemented to the CP, to avoid from computational error accumulation.

Numerical modeling of mechanical wave propagation

The numerical modeling of mechanical waves is currently a fundamental tool for the study and investigation of their propagation in media with heterogeneous physical properties and/or complex geometry, as, in these cases, analytical methods are usually not applicable. These techniques are used in geophysics (geophysical interpretation, subsoil imaging, development of new methods of exploration), seismology (study of earthquakes, regional and global seismology, accurate calculation of synthetic seismograms), in the development of new methods for ultrasonic diagnostics in materials science (non-destructive methods) and medicine (acoustic tomography). In this paper we present a review of numerical methods that have been developed and are currently used. In particular we review the key concepts and pioneering ideas behind finite-difference methods, pseudospectral methods, finite-volume methods, Galerkin continuous and discontinuous finite-element methods (classical or based on spectral interpolation), and still others such as physics-compatible, and multiscale methods. We focus on their formulations in time domain along with the main temporal discretization schemes. We present the theory and implementation for some of these methods. Moreover, their computational characteristics are evaluated in order to aid the choice of the method for each practical situation.