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Quality is key: Investing in advanced nuclear research for tomorrow’s grid
As the energy sector faces mounting pressure to grow at an unprecedented pace while maintaining reliability and affordability, nuclear technology remains an essential component of the long-term solution. Southern Company stands out among U.S. utilities for its proactive role in shaping these next-generation systems—not just as a future customer, but as a hands-on innovator.
Weixiong Zheng, Ryan G. McClarren, Jim E. Morel
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 189 | Number 3 | March 2018 | Pages 259-271
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2017.1407592
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In this work, we present a subdomain discontinuous least-squares (SDLS) scheme for neutronics problems. Least-squares (LS) methods are known to be inaccurate for problems with sharp total cross-section interfaces. In addition, the LS scheme is known not to be globally conservative in heterogeneous problems. In problems where global conservation is important, e.g., k-eigenvalue problems, a conservative treatment must be applied. In this study, we propose an SDLS method that retains global conservation and, as a result, gives high accuracy on eigenvalue problems. Such a method resembles the LS formulation in each subdomain without a material interface and differs from LS in that an additional LS interface term appears for each interface. The scalar flux is continuous in each subdomain with the continuous finite element method while discontinuous on interfaces for every pair of contiguous subdomains. The SDLS numerical results are compared with those obtained from other numerical methods with test problems having material interfaces. High accuracy of scalar flux in fixed-source problems and in eigenvalue problems is demonstrated.