CATHARE calculations of Phenix ultimate natural convection test
- CEA, DEN, DM2S/STMF, Grenoble, F-17 rue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble (France)
- CEA, DEN, DER/SESI, Cadarache, F-13108 Saint Paul lez Durance (France)
- CEA, DEN, DER, Cadarache, F-13108 Saint Paul lez Durance (France)
The Phenix Sodium cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) started operation in 1973 and it was stopped in 2009. Before the reactor was definitively shutdown, in order to collect experimental data for code assessments in the frame of Generation IV an intensive program of ultimate tests was set up. Among these ultimate experiments, two thermal hydraulic tests were performed: an asymmetrical test consisting in a trip on one secondary pump and a natural convection test in the primary circuit. The natural convection test has been used for an international benchmark on system codes in the frame of the IAEA. The CATHARE code - initially developed for water cooled reactors and now extended for safety analyses for other kinds of reactors, including Sodium Fast Reactor - was used by CEA for this benchmark. The paper reminds briefly the Phenix reactor with the main physical parameters and the instrumentation used during the natural convection test. Main test results are also briefly reminded including the evolution of the core and the heat exchangers inlet and outlet temperatures, and some local temperature measurements. The main developments to perform CATHARE SFR computations and the strategy of system code assessment are presented. Then the CATHARE modelling of Phenix reactor is depicted and the various assumptions are pointed out. CATHARE encountered no problem to predict the initial nominal state. Afterwards, the whole transient scenario is calculated and CATHARE calculations are compared to the Phenix measurements. The global trend is rather well predicted by the CATHARE code. Nevertheless, due to complex flow phenomena occurring in large plena and components, the system code encountered physical limitations, leading to remaining discrepancies between code prediction and plant data. Various sensitivity calculations are presented and they bring partial answers. Additional analyses are in progress to understand more deeply the complex 3D phenomena involved during the different phases of the natural convection test. Additional work for coupling CATHARE system code and TRIO-U CFD code is in progress and will bring useful information to better understand the physical phenomena involved during the natural convection test and to improve system modeling for future SFR safety analysis. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22106014
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ICAPP '12: 2012 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants, Chicago, IL (United States), 24-28 Jun 2012; Other Information: Country of input: France; 12 refs.; Related Information: In: Proceedings of the 2012 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants - ICAPP '12| 2799 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
BENCHMARKS
C CODES
CALCULATION METHODS
CEA
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
HEAT EXCHANGERS
IAEA
NATURAL CONVECTION
PHENIX REACTOR
PUMPS
REACTOR KINETICS
REACTOR SHUTDOWN
SAFETY ANALYSIS
SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
SODIUM
TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT
THERMAL HYDRAULICS