Lesson 35

FISSION REACTOR PHYSICS 1
Antonio Cammi
2
Multigroup Diffusion Theory

3
From neutron continuity equation (lesson 14):
Energy-dependent diffusion equation

Multigroup Diffusion Theory (1) 4
As in our earlier discrete ordinates approach, it would be possible to discretize

f(r,E,t) by considering it only to be defined at each energy mesh point Eg.
It is convenient to define the discretized fluxes (multigroup fluxes) fg(r,t)

Where fg(r,t) represent the total flux of all neutrons with energies E in
the group Eg < E < Eg-1.
Our task is to determine equations for fg(r,t)

Consider then a typical energy group g:

A scattering collision can change the neutron energy and hence either remove
it from the group g, or if it is initially in another group g', scatter it to an energy
in the group g.
We will characterize the probability for scattering a neutron from a group g' to
the group g:
Ss(Eg’ -> Eg) or Ssg’g
Note that the cross section characterizing the probability

that a neutron will scatter out of the group g is then given
by:
Eliminating the energy variable in the energy-dependent

diffusion equation by integrating the equation over the gth
energy group characterized by energies:
The multigroup "constants" as we have defined them still depend on space and time. They
will be rigorously constant only in the case in which the neutron flux is of the separable form:
in which case they reduce to group averages over the neutron flux energy spectrum (E).
Unfortunately the flux in a nuclear reactor is usually not separable in energy, and in general
we will find that the group constants do indeed depend on space and time (although in a
manner somewhat more subtle than the above discussion might indicate).
However we will attempt to guess or approximate the intragroup fluxes:
If the incident neutron energy E was substantially greater than the thermal energy of the
target nuclei (typically less than 0.1 eV), the neutron could never gain energy in a
scattering collision. Such "fast" neutrons will only slow down in a scattering collision.
Hence in these fast groups, we can set:
Since most few-group diffusion calculations utilize only one thermal group to describe
the neutrons with E < 1eV (assuming that neutrons cannot scatter up out of the
thermal group), we can generally simplify the scattering term to write:
Here we have taken care to separate out the in-group scattering

term Ssgg
which characterizes the probability that a neutron can suffer a
scattering collision and lose sufficiently little energy that it will still
remain within the group.
It is customary to transfer this term to the left-hand side of the
multigroup equation and to define a removal cross section
Σ𝑅𝑔 = Σ𝑡𝑔 − Σ𝑠𝑔𝑔
represent the probability that neutrons are removed

from group g due to either absorption or out-scattering
into other groups.
One frequently achieves an

additional simplification of the
multigroup equations by
choosing the group spacing such
that neutrons will only scatter to
the next lowest group-that is,
such that:
In this case, one refers to the multigroup

equations as being directly coupled
In case of CRITICALITY condition, without external source, the multigroup equations can
be written as:
If we neglect the up-scattering there is a Iower triangular form for the "diffusion" matrix
M. The fission matrix F is full, however, since fission neutrons induced by a neutron
absorption in a Iower group will appear distributed among the higher energy groups.
In the case of directly coupled groups, M becomes a simple bidiagonal matrix of the
form:
Example: FOUR groups (no up-scattering)
where P is the neutron production term, and it is given by:
𝑃 = 𝜈1 Σ𝑓1 𝜙1 + 𝜈2 Σ𝑓2 𝜙2 + 𝜈3 Σ𝑓3 𝜙3 + 𝜈4 Σ𝑓4 𝜙4

One-Group Diffusion Theory 21
One-Group Diffusion Theory
E0 = ∞ and E1 = 0
Two-Group Diffusion Theory (1) 22
Two-Group Diffusion Theory

Application of two-group diffusion theory to a reactor criticality calculation:

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FISSION REACTOR PHYSICS 1

Multigroup Diffusion Theory

From neutron continuity equation (lesson 14):

Energy-dependent diffusion equation

As in our earlier discrete ordinates approach, it would be possible to discretize

It is convenient to define the discretized fluxes (multigroup fluxes) fg(r,t)

Our task is to determine equations for fg(r,t)

Consider then a typical energy group g:

Ss(Eg’ -> Eg) or Ssg’g

Note that the cross section characterizing the probability

Eliminating the energy variable in the energy-dependent

Here we have taken care to separate out the in-group scattering

Σ𝑅𝑔 = Σ𝑡𝑔 − Σ𝑠𝑔𝑔

represent the probability that neutrons are removed

One frequently achieves an

In this case, one refers to the multigroup

Example: FOUR groups (no up-scattering)

where P is the neutron production term, and it is given by:

𝑃 = 𝜈1 Σ𝑓1 𝜙1 + 𝜈2 Σ𝑓2 𝜙2 + 𝜈3 Σ𝑓3 𝜙3 + 𝜈4 Σ𝑓4 𝜙4

One-Group Diffusion Theory

Two-Group Diffusion Theory

Application of two-group diffusion theory to a reactor criticality calculation:

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