Using Tally Values to Add a Third Dimension when Viewing Planar Mesh Tallies - Paper 95

Mesh tallies show a calculated quantity, such as radiation flux or dose rate, in cells of a rectangular, cylindrical, or spherical mesh. Mesh tallies are useful when the spatial distribution of the quantity is of interest. They are usually displayed in two dimensional (2D) plots with the tally values represented by color coding. Geometry outlines and/or contour lines may be included. Three dimensional (3D) views of rectangular tallies often show a set of tally planes within the geometry. We describe here a new 3D mesh tally plot where the third dimension of a rectangular mesh tally plane is determined by the tally value in each mesh cell. We refer to such plots as elevated mesh tally plots. These plots may aid in analysis and presentation of the results of a transport calculation. The results shown here were calculated with the Monte Carlo transport code MCNPX2.7. The plots were made with the White Rock Science visualization and geometry editing program Moritz. The elevated mesh tally plots have been implemented within Moritz. The elevation method is, at present, only applicable to rectangular mesh tallies. (authors)