scholarly journals Thermal-Hydraulic System Codes in Nulcear Reactor Safety and Qualification Procedures

2008 ◽  
Vol 2008 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Petruzzi ◽  
Francesco D'Auria

In the last four decades, large efforts have been undertaken to provide reliable thermal-hydraulic system codes for the analyses of transients and accidents in nuclear power plants. Whereas the first system codes, developed at the beginning of the 1970s, utilized the homogenous equilibrium model with three balance equations to describe the two-phase flow, nowadays the more advanced system codes are based on the so-called “two-fluid model” with separation of the water and vapor phases, resulting in systems with at least six balance equations. The wide experimental campaign, constituted by the integral and separate effect tests, conducted under the umbrella of the OECD/CSNI was at the basis of the development and validation of the thermal-hydraulic system codes by which they have reached the present high degree of maturity. However, notwithstanding the huge amounts of financial and human resources invested, the results predicted by the code are still affected by errors whose origins can be attributed to several reasons as model deficiencies, approximations in the numerical solution, nodalization effects, and imperfect knowledge of boundary and initial conditions. In this context, the existence of qualified procedures for a consistent application of qualified thermal-hydraulic system code is necessary and implies the drawing up of specific criteria through which the code-user, the nodalization, and finally the transient results are qualified.

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 033324
Author(s):  
Alejandro Clausse ◽  
Martín López de Bertodano

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung Chan Cho ◽  
Yun Wang

In this paper, two-phase flow dynamics in a micro channel with various wall conditions are both experimentally and theoretically investigated. Annulus, wavy and slug flow patterns are observed and location of liquid phase on different wall condition is visualized. The impact of flow structure on two-phase pressure drop is explained. Two-phase pressure drop is compared to a two-fluid model with relative permeability correlation. Optimization of correlation is conducted for each experimental case and theoretical solution for the flows in a circular channel is developed for annulus flow pattern showing a good match with experimental data in homogeneous channel case.


2008 ◽  
Vol 2008 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mantas Povilaitis ◽  
Egidijus Urbonavičius

An issue of the stratified atmospheres in the containments of nuclear power plants is still unresolved; different experiments are performed in the test facilities like TOSQAN and MISTRA. MASPn experiments belong to the spray benchmark, initiated in the containment atmosphere mixing work package of the SARNET network. The benchmark consisted of MASP0, MASP1 and MASP2 experiments. Only the measured depressurisation rates during MASPn were available for the comparison with calculations. When the analysis was performed, the boundary conditions were not clearly defined therefore most of the attention was concentrated on MASP0 simulation in order to develop the nodalisation scheme and define the initial and boundary conditions. After achieving acceptable agreement with measured depressurisation rate, simulations of MASP1 and MASP2 experiments were performed to check the influence of sprays. The paper presents developed nodalisation scheme of MISTRA for the COCOSYS code and the results of analyses. In the performed analyses, several parameters were considered: initial conditions, loss coefficient of the junctions, initial gradients of temperature and steam volume fraction, and characteristic length of structures. Parametric analysis shows that in the simulation the heat losses through the external walls behind the lower condenser installed in the MISTRA facility determine the long-term depressurisation rate.


Author(s):  
David Heinze ◽  
Thomas Schulenberg ◽  
Lars Behnke

A simulation model for the direct contact condensation of steam in subcooled water is presented that allows determination of major parameters of the process, such as the jet penetration length. Entrainment of water by the steam jet is modeled based on the Kelvin–Helmholtz and Rayleigh–Taylor instability theories. Primary atomization due to acceleration of interfacial waves and secondary atomization due to aerodynamic forces account for the initial size of entrained droplets. The resulting steam-water two-phase flow is simulated based on a one-dimensional two-fluid model. An interfacial area transport equation is used to track changes of the interfacial area density due to droplet entrainment and steam condensation. Interfacial heat and mass transfer rates during condensation are calculated using the two-resistance model. The resulting two-phase flow equations constitute a system of ordinary differential equations, which is solved by means of the explicit Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg algorithm. The simulation results are in good qualitative agreement with published experimental data over a wide range of pool temperatures and mass flow rates.


Author(s):  
Hiroyuki Yoshida ◽  
Takeharu Misawa ◽  
Kazuyuki Takase

Two-fluid model can simulate two phase flow less computational cost than inter-face tracking method and particle interaction method. Therefore, two-fluid model is useful for thermal hydraulic analysis in large-scale domain such as a rod bundle. Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) develops three dimensional two-fluid model analysis code ACE-3D, which adopts boundary fitted coordinate system in order to simulate complex shape channel flow. In this paper, boiling two-phase flow analysis in a tight lattice rod bundle is performed by ACE-3D code. The parallel computation using 126CPUs is applied to this analysis. In the results, the void fraction, which distributes in outermost region of rod bundle, is lower than that in center region of rod bundle. At height z = 0.5 m, void fraction in the gap region is higher in comparison with that in center region of the subchannel. However, at height of z = 1.1m, higher void fraction distribution exists in center region of the subchannel in comparison with the gap region. The tendency of void fraction to concentrate in the gap region at vicinity of boiling starting point, and to move into subchannel as water goes through rod bundle, is qualitatively agreement with the measurement results by neutron radiography. To evaluate effects of two-phase flow model used in ACE-3D code, numerical simulation of boiling two-phase in tight lattice rod bundle with no lift force model (neglecting lift force acting on bubbles) is also performed. From the comparison of numerical results, it is concluded that the effects of lift force model are not so large on overall void fraction distribution in tight lattice rod bundle. However, higher void fraction distribution in center region of the subchannel was not observed in this simulation. It is concluded that the lift force model is important for local void fraction distribution in rod bundles.


Author(s):  
Wei Yao ◽  
Christophe Morel

In this paper, a multidimensional two-fluid model with additional turbulence k–ε equations is used to predict the two-phase parameters distribution in freon R12 boiling flow. The 3D module of the CATHARE code is used for numerical calculation. The DEBORA experiment has been chosen to evaluate our models. The radial profiles of the outlet parameters were measured by means of an optical probe. The comparison of the radial profiles of void fraction, liquid temperature, gas velocity and volumetric interfacial area at the end of the heated section shows that the multidimensional two-fluid model with proper constitutive relations can yield reasonably predicted results in boiling conditions. Sensitivity tests show that the turbulent dispersion force, which involves the void fraction gradient, plays an important role in determining the void fraction distribution; and the turbulence eddy viscosity is a significant factor to influence the liquid temperature distribution.


Author(s):  
Enrico Deri ◽  
Joël Nibas ◽  
Olivier Ries ◽  
André Adobes

Flow-induced vibrations of Steam Generator tube bundles are a major concern for the operators of nuclear power plants. In order to predict damages due to such vibrations, EDF has developed the numerical tool GeViBus, which allows one to asses risk and thereafter to optimize the SG maintenance policy. The software is based on a semi analytical model of fluid-dynamic forces and dimensionless fluid force coefficients which need to be assessed by experiment. The database of dimensionless coefficients is updated in order to cover all existing tube bundle configurations. Within this framework, a new test rig was presented in a previous conference with the aim of assessing parallel triangular tube arrangement submitted to a two-phase cross-flow. This paper presents the result of the first phase of the associated experiments in terms of force coefficients and two-phase flow excitation spectra for both in-plane and out-of-plane vibration.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 109 ◽  
Author(s):  
René Manthey ◽  
Frances Viereckl ◽  
Amirhosein Moonesi Shabestary ◽  
Yu Zhang ◽  
Wei Ding ◽  
...  

Passive safety systems are an important feature of currently designed and constructed nuclear power plants. They operate independent of external power supply and manual interventions and are solely driven by thermal gradients and gravitational force. This brings up new needs for performance and reliably assessment. This paper provides a review on fundamental approaches to model and analyze the performance of passive heat removal systems exemplified for the passive heat removal chain of the KERENA boiling water reactor concept developed by Framatome. We discuss modeling concepts for one-dimensional system codes such as ATHLET, RELAP and TRACE and furthermore for computational fluid dynamics codes. Part I dealt with numerical and experimental methods for modeling of condensation inside the emergency condenser and on the containment cooling condenser. This second part deals with boiling and two-phase flow instabilities.


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