Application of a combined Eulerian-Lagrangian mesh updating method to the rod cusping problem

Problem Solving Environments (PSEs) are a new class of tools for developing solutions to problems in science and engineering. This study discusses the development of a PSE which specializes in the treatment of the kinematic motion of components within fields that vary with time. the specific problem of reactor control rod insertion has been chosen as a representative application in this area. The use of overlapping and patched meshes for modeling both motion and non-uniform discretization is compared. Overlapping grids are shown to be ineffective at approximating the neutron diffusion equation, a proposed solution using patched grids is discussed. (author)