Nodal synthesis - Consistent nodal approach for global reactor analysis

A new nodal approach for global reactor core calculations is described, in which local weighted residual procedure equations are consistently embedded into a classical nodal scheme without the necessity of a transverse leakage fitting approximation. The equations derived are formulated for arbitrary node geometry and a wide class of base functions. Simplicity and efficiency of the final relations are assured for regularly shaped nodes by means of symmetry considerations. Application to hexagonal geometry of nodes is discussed. Numerical results for few-group steady-state problems in hexagonal geometry prove highly accurate, comparable to analytic codes, and better with respect to computational efficiency