Method for coupling two-dimensional to three-dimensional discrete ordinates calculations

A three-dimensional (3-D) discrete ordinates transport code, TORT, has been developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for radiation penetration studies. It is not feasible to solve some 3-D penetration problems with TORT, such as a building located a large distance from a point source, because (1) the discretized 3-D problem is simply too big to fit on the computer or (2) the computing time (and corresponding cost) is prohibitive. Fortunately, such problems can be solved with a hybrid approach by coupling a two-dimensional (2-D) description of the point source, which is assumed to be azimuthally symmetric, to a 3-D description of the building, the region of interest. The purpose of this paper is to describe this hybrid methodology along with its implementation and evaluation in the DOTTOR (Discrete Ordinates to Three-dimensional Oak Ridge Transport) code.