Inproceedings,
Jacobian-Free Newton-Krylov Coupling Methods for Nuclear Reactors
M&C 2017 - International Conference on Mathematics & Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science & Engineering, (April 2017)
Abstract
The applicability of a Jacobian-Free Newton-Krylov (JFNK) method for use in coupled reactor problems is examined. The ability for JFNK to simultaneously solve coupled systems of equations offers the potential for significant computational speedup over traditional solver methods. Simplified 1D and infinite homogeneous medium problems were devised to test the effectiveness of JFNK on coupled problems. These problems demonstrated that updating the absorption cross section from within the JFNK solver can decrease computational times significantly. Additionally, a JFNK eigenvalue solver was fully implemented into the neutron transport code MPACT. Problems tested using this solver showed that JFNK offers, at worst, comparable performance as long as an appropriate preconditioner is used.
