Fast solution of neutron transport SP3 equation by reduced basis finite element method

For nuclear reactor analysis and fuel depletion analysis, the neutron transport equation has to be solved many times. Fast and accurate solution of the transport problem is demanding but necessary. In the present work, the reduced basis finite element method is used to solve the generalized eigenvalue problem formulated from the simplified P3 (SP3) neutron transport equation with the cross sections treated as parameters. Numerical tests show that a speedup of around 3500 is achieved for the three-dimensional IAEA PWR benchmark problem and a speedup of around 10100 is achieved for the two-dimensional VVER-440 reactor core with the fission cross-sections, the absorption cross-sections and the scattering cross-sections treated as parameters. Construction of reduced-order parametric models would be a promising approach to build numerical nuclear reactor for high fidelity integrated simulation.