Investigations on RELAP5-3D to RELAP5-3D coupling methodology by PVMEXEC
- Nuclear and INdustrial Engineering-NINE, Borgo Giannotti 19 - 55100 Lucca, LU (Italy)
- University of Pisa, Via Livornese 1219, San Piero a Grado, Pisa (Italy)
In the framework of a BEPU (Best Estimate Plus Uncertainty) approach within the licensing process of a nuclear power plant, the need to extend the resources of nuclear system thermal-hydraulics codes, such as RELAP5-3D, arises to allow more detailed simulations of the complex 3D reality of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs), either under normal steady-state or during various accident scenarios. Currently, it is not possible to achieve the same degree of detail for a whole nuclear system when it is simulated with RELAP5-3D and this is due to the inherent limitations in the number of components and volumes to be used for the analysis. For this reason, it is of extreme interest the use of tools for codes coupling that enable the use of different codes for the simulation of different portions of a system in a unified analysis. In this paper the attention will be focused on the decomposition of the thermal-hydraulic domain of a system into subsystems to be simulated by different instances of the same code (e.g. RELAP5-3D) coupled together by means of PVMEXEC program and parallel virtual machine (PVM) technology. Explicit and semi-implicit solution algorithms were used for the analyses. Among the analyzed cases, the following will be discussed in detail with the aim to provide additional guidelines for the use of the PVMEXEC tool: (i) the Edward's pipe blowdown test, (ii) a simplified countercurrent heat exchanger, (iii) different hydraulics and heat structure coupling schemes for a shell-tube heat exchanger and (iv) a three-task coupled model of an adaptation of the Christensen subcooled boiling experiment. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society - ANS, Thermal Hydraulics Division, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22977477
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ATH 16: International Topical Meeting on Advances in Thermal Hydraulics, New Orleans, LA (United States), 12-16 Jun 2016; Other Information: Country of input: France; 8 refs.; available on CD Rom from American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Investigation of Natural Circulation Instability and Transients in Passively Safe Small Modular Reactors
Validation of RELAP-7 for Forced Convective and Natural Circulation Reactor Flows