Validation of finite difference core diffusion calculation methods with FEM and NEM for VVER-1000 MWe reactor
- Light Water Reactor Physics Section, Reactor Physics Design Div., Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai - 400 085 (India)
- Reactor Physics and Nuclear Engineering Section, Reactor Group, BARC, Mumbai (India)
- Nuclear Safety Group, KK-NPC, Mumbai (India)
India is developing several in-house fuel management codes for the design evaluation of WER-1000 M We reactors, being built at Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu in collaboration with Russian Federation. A lattice burnup code EXCEL provides the few group lattice parameters of various fuel assembly types constituting the core. The core diffusion analyses have been performed by two methods. In the first method the entire fuel assembly is treated as a single homogenized cell. Each fuel assembly cell is divided into 6n{sup 2} triangles, where 'n' is the number of uniform divisions on a side of the hexagon. Regular triangular meshes are used in the active core as well as in surrounding reflector regions. This method is incorporated in the code TRIHEXFA. In the second method a pin by pin description of the core is accomplished by considering the few group lattice parameters generated by EXCEL code for various fuel and non-fuel cells in each fuel assembly. Regular hexagonal cells of one pin pitch are considered in the core and reflector regions. This method is incorporated in HEXPIN code. Both these codes use centre mesh finite difference method (FDM) for regular triangular or hexagonal meshes. It is well known that the large size of the WER fuel assembly, the zigzag structure of the core-baffle zone, the distribution of water tubes of different diameter in this baffle zone and the surrounding steel and water layers of different thickness, all lead to a very complex description of the core-reflector interface. We are analyzing the WER core in fresh state by two other approaches to obtain independent benchmark reference solutions. They are finite element method (FEM) and nodal expansion method (NEM). The few group cross sections of EXCEL are used in the FEM and NEM analyses. The paper would present the comparison of the results of core followup simulations of FD codes with those of FEM and NEM analyses. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22039569
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
BENCHMARKS
BURNUP
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
CROSS SECTIONS
FINITE DIFFERENCE METHOD
FINITE ELEMENT METHOD
FUEL ASSEMBLIES
FUEL MANAGEMENT
NODAL EXPANSION METHOD
REACTOR CORES
REACTOR LATTICE PARAMETERS
STEELS
TUBES
WATER
WWER TYPE REACTORS