Abstract
The trigonometric Fourier-series method (TFS) is generalized to provide approximate solutions for non-linear point kinetics equations with feedback using varying step sizes. This method can provide a very stable solution against the size of the discrete time step allowing much larger step sizes to be used. Systems of the point kinetics equations are solved using Fourier-series expansion over a partition of the total time interval. The approximate solution requires determining the series coefficients over each time step in that partition. These coefficients are determined using the high-order derivatives of the solution vector at the beginning of the time step introducing a system of linear algebraic equations to be solved at each step. This system is similar to the Vandermonde system. Two successive orders of the partial sums are used to estimate the local truncation error. This error and some other constrains are used to produce the largest step size allowable at each step while keeping the error within a specific tolerance. The process of calculating suitable step sizes should be automatic and inexpensive. Convergence and stability of the proposed method are discussed and a new formula is introduced to maintain stability. The proposed method solves the general linear and non-linear kinetics problems. The method has been applied to five different types of reactivities including step/ramp insertions with temperature feedback. The method is seemed to be valid for larger time intervals than those used in the conventional numerical integration, and is thus useful in reducing computing time. Computational results are found to be consistent with the analysis, they demonstrate that the convergence of the iteration scheme can be accelerated and the resulting computing times can be greatly reduced while maintain computational accuracy.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Intel (R) Core (TM) i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00GHz.
References
Aboanber AE (2006) Stability of generalized Runge-Kutta methods for stiff kinetics coupled differential equations. J Phys A: Math Gen 39:1859–1876
Aboanber AE, Hamada YM (2003) Power series solution (PWS) of nuclear reactor dynamics with newtonian temperature feedback. Ann Nucl Eng 30:111–1122
Alfio Q, Riccardo S, Fausto S (2007) Numerical Mathematics. 2th edn, New York, NY 10029-6574 USA
Brown JW, Churchill RV (1993) Fourier series and boundary value problems, 5th edn. McGraw-Hill, New York
Canuto C, Hussaini MY, Quarteroni A, Zang TA (2006) Spectral methods. fundamentals in single domains. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg
Charalambos DA, Owen B (1998) Principle of real analysis, 3d edn. Academic, New York
Erwin K (2011) Adv Eng Math, 10th edn. Wiley, Hoboken
Froehlich R, Johnson SR, Merrill MH (1968) GAKIT—a one-dimensional multigroup kinetics code with temperature feedback. GA-8576, General Atomic
Ganapol BD et al (2012) The solution of the point kinetics equation: a converged accelerated Taylor series (CATS), PHYSOR 2012, Knoxville, TN, USA, April 15–20 on CD-ROM. American Nuclear Society, LaGrange Park, IL
Ganapol BD (2013) A highly accurate algorithm for the solution of the point kinetics equations. Ann Nucl Energy 62:564–571
Hamada YM (2013) Confirmation of accuracy of generalized power series method for the solution of point kinetics equations with feedback. Ann Nucl Energy 55:184–193
Hamada YM (2014) Liapunov’s stability on autonomous nuclear dynamical systems. Prog Nuclear Energy 73:11–20
Hamada YM (2015) Trigonometric Fourier- series solutions of the point reactor kinetics equations systems. Nucl Sci Des 281:142–153
Hennart JP (1977) Piecewise polynomial approximations for nuclear reactor point and space kinetics. Nucl Sci Eng 64:875–901
Hetrick DL (1993) Dynamics of Nuclear Reactors. American Nuclear Society (JBC), Illinois, USA
Howell Kenneth B (2001) Principles of Fourier analysis. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida
Iserles A (2009) A first course in the numerical analysis of differential equations, 2nd edn. Cambridge University, Cambridge
Konrd K (1954) Theory and application of infinite series. 4th edn, German Edition. Blackie & Son Glasgow
Lawrence ES, Arnold JI, Stephen HF (2008) Elementary linear algebra: a matrix approach, 2nd edn. Pearson Education Inc, Upper Saddle River, NJ, p 7458
Nahla AA (2010) Analytical solution to solve the point reactor kinetics equations. Nucl Sci Des 240:1622–1629
Nahla AA (2011) An efficient technique for the point reactor kinetics equations with Newtonian temperature feedback effects. Ann Nucl Energy 38:2810–2817
Nobrega J (1971) A new solution of the point kinetics. Nucl Sci Eng 46:366–375
Trefethen Lloyd N (2000) Spectral methods in MATLAB. SIAM, Philadelphia, PA
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by Jose Alberto Cuminato.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hamada, Y.M. Generalized trigonometric Fourier-series method with automatic time step control for non-linear point kinetics equations. Comp. Appl. Math. 37, 3473–3502 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40314-017-0521-2
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40314-017-0521-2