Open AccessDevelopment of a computer code for neutronic calculations of a hexagonal lattice of nuclear reactor using the flux expansion nodal method
Author(s) -
Meysam Mohammadnia,
A. Pazirandeh,
Mostafa Sedighi
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
nuclear technology and radiation protection
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.31
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 1452-8185
pISSN - 1451-3994
DOI - 10.2298/ntrp1303237m
Subject(s) - nodal , hexagonal crystal system , nuclear engineering , lattice (music) , nuclear physics , code (set theory) , materials science , physics , computer science , chemistry , engineering , crystallography , programming language , biology , set (abstract data type) , acoustics , anatomy
The flux expansion nodal method is a suitable method for considering nodalization effects in node corners. In this paper we used this method to solve the intra-nodal flux analytically. Then, a computer code, named MA.CODE, was developed using the C# programming language. The code is capable of reactor core calculations for hexagonal geometries in two energy groups and three dimensions. The MA.CODE imports two group constants from the WIMS code and calculates the effective multiplication factor, thermal and fast neutron flux in three dimensions, power density, reactivity, and the power peaking factor of each fuel assembly. Some of the code's merits are low calculation time and a user friendly interface. MA.CODE results showed good agreement with IAEA benchmarks, i. e. AER-FCM-101 and AER-FCM-001