reactor_simulation


reactor_simulation, a FORTRAN77 code which simulates the shielding effect of a slab intended to absorb or reflect most of the radiation from a neutron source. This program is intended as a simple demonstration of Monte Carlo simulation as applied to the analysis of complicated probabilistic systems.

The code is an example program that was developed in the book "Numerical Methods and Software".

The code is a Monte Carlo simulation, using uniform random numbers, which investigates the effectiveness of a shield intended to absorb the neutrons emitted from a nuclear reactor.

The reactor is modeled as a point source, located at (0,0,0).

A particle emitted from the reactor has a random initial direction, and an energy selected from [Emin,Emax] with a 1/Sqrt(E) distribution.

The shield is modeled as a wall of thickness THICK, extending from 0 to THICK in the X direction, and extending forever in the Y and Z directions.

Based on the particle energy, a distance D is computed which measures how far the particle could travel through the shield before colliding.

Based on the particle direction, the position is updated by D units.

If the particle is now to the left of the shield, it is counted as being REFLECTED.

If the particle is to the right of the shield, it is counted as being ABSORBED.

If the particle is inside the shield, it has COLLIDED. A particle that collides is either absorbed (end of story) or SCATTERED with a new random direction and a new (lower) energy.

Every particle is followed from origin to its final fate, which is reflection, transmission, or absorption. At the end, a summary is printed, giving the number of particles with each fate, and the average energy of each group of particles.

Increasing NTOT, the number of particles used, will improve the expected reliability of the results.

Increasing THICK, the thickness of the shield, should result in more absorptions and reflections.

Licensing:

The computer code and data files described and made available on this web page are distributed under the GNU LGPL license.

Languages:

reactor_simulation is available in a C version and a C++ version and a Fortran90 version and a MATLAB version and an Octave version and a Python version.

Related Data and Programs:

reactor_simulation_test

brownian_motion_simulation, a FORTRAN77 library which simulates Brownian motion in an M-dimensional region.

duel_simulation, a FORTRAN77 program which simulates N repetitions of a duel between two players, each of whom has a known firing accuracy.

FAIR_DICE_SIMULATION, a FORTRAN77 program which simulates N tosses of 2 dice, making a histogram of the results.

HIGH_CARD_SIMULATION, a FORTRAN77 program which simulates a situation in which you see the cards in a deck one by one, and must select the one you think is the highest and stop; the program uses GNUPLOT for graphics.

ISING_2D_SIMULATION, a FORTRAN77 library which carries out a Monte Carlo simulation of a 2D Ising model.

NMS, a FORTRAN77 library which accompanies the book "Numerical Methods and Software", from which the REACTOR_SIMULATION program was extracted.

POISSON_SIMULATION, a FORTRAN77 library which simulates a Poisson process in which events randomly occur with an average waiting time of Lambda.

THREE_BODY_SIMULATION, a FORTRAN77 program which simulates the behavior of three planets, constrained to lie in a plane, and moving under the influence of gravity, by Walter Gander and Jiri Hrebicek.

Reference:

  1. David Kahaner, Cleve Moler, Steven Nash,
    Numerical Methods and Software,
    Prentice Hall, 1989,
    ISBN: 0-13-627258-4,
    LC: TA345.K34.

Source Code:


Last revised on 07 November 2023.