Comprehensive Second-Order Adjoint Sensitivity Analysis Methodology (2nd-ASAM) Applied to a Subcritical Experimental Reactor Physics Benchmark. VI: Overall Impact of 1st- and 2nd-Order Sensitivities on Response Uncertainties

Dan G. Cacuci, Ruixian Fang and Jeffrey A. Favorite
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Dan G. Cacuci: Center for Nuclear Science and Energy, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA
Ruixian Fang: Center for Nuclear Science and Energy, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA
Jeffrey A. Favorite: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Applied Physics (X) Division, MS F663, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-37

Abstract: This work applies the Second-Order Adjoint Sensitivity Analysis Methodology (2nd-ASAM) to compute the 1st-order and unmixed 2nd-order sensitivities of a polyethylene-reflected plutonium (PERP) benchmark’s leakage response with respect to the benchmark’s imprecisely known isotopic number densities. The numerical results obtained for these sensitivities indicate that the 1st-order relative sensitivity to the isotopic number densities for the two fissionable isotopes have large values, which are comparable to, or larger than, the corresponding sensitivities for the total cross sections. Furthermore, several 2nd-order unmixed sensitivities for the isotopic number densities are significantly larger than the corresponding 1st-order ones. This work also presents results for the first-order sensitivities of the PERP benchmark’s leakage response with respect to the fission spectrum parameters of the two fissionable isotopes, which have very small values. Finally, this work presents the overall summary and conclusions stemming from the research findings for the total of 21,976 first-order sensitivities and 482,944,576 second-order sensitivities with respect to all model parameters of the PERP benchmark, as presented in the sequence of publications in the Special Issue of Energies dedicated to “Sensitivity Analysis, Uncertainty Quantification and Predictive Modeling of Nuclear Energy Systems”.

Keywords: polyethylene-reflected plutonium sphere; 1st- and 2nd-order sensitivities; isotopic number density; fission spectrum; expected value; variance and skewness of leakage response (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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