• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.469-478
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• 2005

The subchannel analysis capability of MARS, a multi-dimensional thermal-hydraulic system code, has been enhanced. In particular, the turbulent mixing and void drift models for the flow-mixing phenomena in rod bundles were improved. Then, the subchannel analysis feature was combined with the existing coupled system thermal-hydraulics (T/H) and 3D reactor kinetics calculation capability of MARS. These features allow for more realistic simulations of both the hot channel behavior and the global system T/H behavior. Using the coupled features of MARS, a coupled analysis of a main steam line break (MSLB) is carried out for demonstration purposes. The results of the calculations are very reasonable and promising.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.214-226
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• 2000

In an effort to assess the performance of KAERI's coupled 3D kinetics - system T/H code, MARS/MASTER, Exercise III of the OECD main steam line break benchmark is solved. The analysis model of the reference plant, TMI-1 - a 2772 MWth B&W plant, consists of three major components: a core neutronics model involving 241$\times$28 neutronic nodes, a vessel 3D T/H model consisting of 374 hydrodynamic volumes, and a 1D system T/H model containing 157 hydrodynamic volumes. The results show that there is a significant amount of flow mixing occurring in the upper and lower plenum regions and the core power distribution evolves to a highly localized shape due to the presence of a stuck rod, as well as the asymmetric flow distribution. It is judged that MARS/MASTER properly captures these drastic 3-dimensional effects. Comparisons with other results submitted to OECD confirm the accuracy of the MARS/MASTER solution.