Faster and more accurate transport procedures for HZETRN

The deterministic transport code HZETRN was developed for research scientists and design engineers studying the effects of space radiation on astronauts and instrumentation protected by various shielding materials and structures. In this work, several aspects of code verification are examined. First, a detailed derivation of the light particle (A ⩽ 4) and heavy ion (A > 4) numerical marching algorithms used in HZETRN is given. References are given for components of the derivation that already exist in the literature, and discussions are given for details that may have been absent in the past. The present paper provides a complete description of the numerical methods currently used in the code and is identified as a key component of the verification process. Next, a new numerical method for light particle transport is presented, and improvements to the heavy ion transport algorithm are discussed. A summary of round-off error is also given, and the impact of this error on previously predicted exposure quantities is shown. Finally, a coupled convergence study is conducted by refining the discretization parameters (step-size and energy grid-size). From this study, it is shown that past efforts in quantifying the numerical error in HZETRN were hindered by single precision calculations and computational resources. It is determined that almost all of the discretization error in HZETRN is caused by the use of discretization parameters that violate a numerical convergence criterion related to charged target fragments below 50 AMeV. Total discretization errors are given for the old and new algorithms to 100 g/cm2 in aluminum and water, and the improved accuracy of the new numerical methods is demonstrated. Run time comparisons between the old and new algorithms are given for one, two, and three layer slabs of 100 g/cm2 of aluminum, polyethylene, and water. The new algorithms are found to be almost 100 times faster for solar particle event simulations and almost 10 times faster for galactic cosmic ray simulations.