Fractional neutron point kinetics equations for nuclear reactor dynamics

The fractional point-neutron kinetics model for the dynamic behavior in a nuclear reactor is derived and analyzed in this paper. The fractional model retains the main dynamic characteristics of the neutron motion in which the relaxation time associated with a rapid variation in the neutron flux contains a fractional order, acting as exponent of the relaxation time, to obtain the best representation of a nuclear reactor dynamics. The physical interpretation of the fractional order is related with non-Fickian effects from the neutron diffusion equation point of view. The numerical approximation to the solution of the fractional neutron point kinetics model, which can be represented as a multi-term high-order linear fractional differential equation, is calculated by reducing the problem to a system of ordinary and fractional differential equations. The numerical stability of the fractional scheme is investigated in this work. Results for neutron dynamic behavior for both positive and negative reactivity and for different values of fractional order are shown and compared with the classic neutron point kinetic equations. Additionally, a related review with the neutron point kinetics equations is presented, which encompasses papers written in English about this research topic (as well as some books and technical reports) published since 1940 up to 2010. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.