SN TRANSPORT CALCULATIONS FOR A GASEOUS CORE REACTOR.

Abstract

A nuclear analysis was performed on a gaseous core cavity reactor suitable for space propulsion. The reactor analyzed consisted of a spherical gaseous core reactor surrounded by a carbon Beryllium reflector. To carry out this analysis, the angular segmentation (Sn) method was applied to the conservative form of the Boltzmann Equation to obtain a set of finite difference equations. The finite difference equations were then incorporated into a computer code written by the author. The computer code was programed for the IBM 7094 coupled system using Fortran IV. The code was first applied to an idealized gas core reactor which was previously analyzed by T. F. Plunckett using sixteen group diffusion theory. The difference in critical mass was 8%. After this check on the reliability of the author's code, a parametric study on the gaseous core reactor was performed. The results of this study, which determined the critical mass as a function of core radii and design thrust, are presented. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 1966
Accession Number
AD0635232

Entities

People

  • Carl F. Bloemker

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Beryllium
  • Boltzmann Equation
  • Computer Vision
  • Computers
  • Difference Equations
  • Diffusion
  • Diffusion Theory
  • Equations
  • Mathematical Analysis
  • Mathematics
  • Reflectors
  • Reliability
  • Space Propulsion
  • Transport Ships

Readers

  • Combustion and Flow Dynamics.
  • Finite Element Method (FEM) for solving Partial Differential Equations (PDEs)
  • Solar Physics

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster