Automatic Mesh Coarsening for Discrete Ordinates Codes

This paper describes the use of a ''mesh potential'' function for automatic coarsening of meshes in discrete ordinates neutral particle transport codes. For many transport calculations, a user may find it helpful to have the code determine a ''good'' neutronics mesh. The complexity of a problem involving millions of mesh cells, dozens of materials, and many energy groups makes it difficult to determine an adequate level of mesh refinement with a minimum number of cells. A method has been implemented in PARTISN (Parallel Time-dependent SN) to calculate a ''mesh potential'' in each original cell of a problem, and use this information to determine the maximum coarseness allowed in the mesh while maintaining accuracy in the solution. Results are presented for a simple x-y-z fuel/control/reflector problem