Reactor kinetic formulation using the finite element method

This research has the objective of solving the spatial Kinetic equations for two energy groups using the finite element method. In the methodology, was applied the direct method, such that matrix equations coefficients from spatial discretization was generated by finite element method. The formulation of the time-dependent problem was obtained by analytical integration of precursor concentration equation and using the Euler implicit scheme in the dynamic diffusion problem. A 2D example of a reactor static diffusion problem was solved using a linear triangular finite element. This solution was compared with the numerical benchmark solution, found in the literature, and the numerical results calculated by the finite difference methods. This comparison shows the capacity of the finite element method to obtain a precise solution. (author)