Method for calculating anisotropic neutron transport using scattering kernel without polynomial expansion

Abstract

A new method for calculating the anisotropic neutron transport is proposed for the angular spectral analysis of D-T fusion reactor neutronics. The method is based on the transport equation with new type of anisotropic scattering kernels formulated by a single function Ii(p', p) instead of polynomial expansion, for instance, Legendre polynomials. In the calculation of angular flux spectra by using scattering kernels with the Legendre polynomial expansion, we often observe the oscillation with negative flux. But in principle this oscillation disappears by this new method. In this work, we discussed anisotropic scattering kernels of the elastic scattering and the inelastic scatterings which excite discrete energy levels. The other scatterings were included in isotropic scattering kernels. An approximation method, with use of the first collision source written by the Ii(u’, u) function, was introduced to attenuate the “oscillations” when we are obliged to use the scattering kernels with the Legendre polynomial expansion. Calculated results with this approximation showed remarkable improvement for the analysis of the angular flux spectra in a slab system of lithium metal with the D-T neutron source. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.