Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Effect of inlet throttling on thermohydraulic instability in a large scale water-based RCCS: A system-level analysis with RELAP5-3D

  • Zhiee Jhia Ooi (Argonne National Laboratory) ;
  • Qiuping Lv (Argonne National Laboratory) ;
  • Rui Hu (Argonne National Laboratory) ;
  • Matthew Jasica (Argonne National Laboratory) ;
  • Darius Lisowski (Argonne National Laboratory)
  • Received : 2023.07.11
  • Accepted : 2023.12.27
  • Published : 2024.05.25
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Abstract

This paper presents results from system-level modeling of a water-based reactor cavity cooling system using RELAP5-3D. The computational model is benchmarked with experimental data from a half-scale RCCS test facility at Argonne National Laboratory. The model prediction is first compared with a two-phase oscillatory baseline experimental case where mixed accuracy is obtained. The model shows reasonable prediction of mass flow rate, pressure, and temperature but significant overprediction of void fraction. The model prediction is then compared with a fault case where the inlet of the risers is gradually reduced using a throttling valve. As the valve is closed, the model is able to predict some major flow phenomena observed in the experiment such as the dampening of oscillations, the reintroduction of oscillations, as well as boiling, flashing, and geysering in the risers. However, the timeline of these events are not well captured by the model. The model is also used to investigate the evolution of flow regime in the chimney. This work highlights that the semi-empirical constitutive relations used in RELAP-3D could have a strong influence on the accuracy of the model in two-phase oscillatory flows.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy, Office of Nuclear Reactor Technologies, Advanced Reactor Technologies. The submitted manuscript has been created by UChicago Argonne LLC, Operator of Argonne National Laboratory ("Argonne"). Argonne, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science laboratory, is operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

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