A characteristic based multiple balance approach for SN on arbitrary polygonal meshes

The authors introduce a new approach for characteristic based Sn transport on arbitrary polygonal meshes in XY geometry. They approximate a general surface as an arbitrary polygon and rotate to a coordinate system aligned with the direction of particle travel. They use exact moment balance equations on whole cells and subregions called slices and close the system by analytically solving the characteristic equation. The authors assume spatial functions for boundary conditions and cell sources and formulate analogous functions for outgoing edge and cell angular fluxes which exactly preserve spatial moments of the analytic solution. In principle, their approach provides the framework to extend characteristic methods formulated on rectangular grids to arbitrary polygonal meshes. The authors derive schemes based on step and linear spatial approximations. Their step characteristic scheme is mathematically equivalent to the Extended Step Characteristic (ESC) method but their approach and scheme differ in the geometry rotation and in the solution form. Their solutions are simple and permit edge-based transport sweep ordering