Comparison of Alternating-Direction Time-Differencing Methods with Other Implicit Methods for the Solution of the Neutron Group-Diffusion Equations

Alternating-direction implicit (ADI) time-differencing approximations are developed for the two-dimensional neutron group-diffusion equations. These methods are analyzed for accuracy and stability relative to the implicit-difference approach used in the TWIGL program. It is shown that for model problems (bare homogenous reactors with constant material properties) the ADI method is as accurate as the TWIGL method and much faster computationally. However, several numerical comparisons show that the ADI approach is asymptotically unstable for non-model problems unless extremely small time-steps are used. Such comparisons show the ADI methods (considered in this paper) to be inferior to the TWIGL method for realistic reactor-dynamic problems. A variant on the ADI scheme (ADI-B²) is developed and for a class of delayed supercritical problems shown to be potentially superior to all methods considered.