Newton’s second law analogy for the traveling wave of nuclear burning

Abstract

We consider a model of neutron-nuclear wave burning. The traveling wave of nuclear burning of the medium is initiated by an external neutron source and is the basis for the new generation reactors the so-called “traveling-wave reactors”. We develop a model of nuclear traveling wave burning, for which it is possible to draw a Newton’s second law analogy with a mechanical dissipative system. On the basis of this analogy, we find that the wave velocity has a continuous spectrum bounded below. Within the framework of the new model, we show the autowave to be possible for certain neutron energies only. Also we find that two burning modes are possible depending on the control parameters: a traveling autowave and a wave driven by an external neutron source.