Finite volume method based neutronics solvers for steady and transient-state analysis of nuclear reactors

Coupling analysis plays more and more important roles in recent years for the accurately modelling of nuclear reactors. But with the different discretization methods adopted in different physical phenomena, it is difficult to couple different kinds of codes. In this paper, steady and transient-state neutronics solvers have been developed based on the finite volume method which is widely used for the simulation of fluid flow and heat and mass transfer. With the adoption of this discretization method, mesh mapping technique and data exchange become much easier for the coupling codes compared with traditional methods. The developed neutronics solvers are verified by several benchmark problems. Numerical results indicate that the developed neutronics solvers are reliable to be applied for the steady-state and transient-state neutronics analysis of nuclear reactors.