Finite difference applied to the reconstruction method of the nuclear power density distribution

In this reconstruction method the two-dimensional (2D) neutron diffusion equation is discretized by finite differences, employed to two energy groups (2G) and meshes with fuel-pin cell dimensions. The Nodal Expansion Method (NEM) makes use of surface discontinuity factors of the node and provides for reconstruction method the effective multiplication factor of the problem and the four surface average fluxes in homogeneous nodes with size of a fuel assembly (FA). The reconstruction process combines the discretized 2D diffusion equation by finite differences with fluxes distribution on four surfaces of the nodes. These distributions are obtained for each surfaces from a fourth order one-dimensional (1D) polynomial expansion with five coefficients to be determined. The conditions necessary for coefficients determination are three average fluxes on consecutive surfaces of the three nodes and two fluxes in corners between these three surface fluxes. Corner fluxes of the node are determined using a third order 1D polynomial expansion with four coefficients. This reconstruction method uses heterogeneous nuclear parameters directly providing the heterogeneous neutron flux distribution and the detailed nuclear power density distribution within the FAs. The results obtained with this method has good accuracy and efficiency when compared with reference values.