RELAP5 assessment of noncondensable test data for passive cooling applications

Conference · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1992 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States)

OSTI ID:6673003

Kullberg, C ^[1]

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1. Idaho National Engineering Lab., Idaho Falls (United States)

As part of a research effort to better understand passive heat removal dynamics, a series of numerical steady-state simulations in the presence of noncondensable gases was performed to evaluate RELAP5/MOD3 against test data. This preliminary assessment was made using data from the University of California, Berkeley (UCB), natural circulation loop test facility. This paper presents work that has been used to support the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's evaluation of General Electric's simplified boiling water reactor (SBWR). The SBWR is an advanced design that relies on a passive containment cooling system (PCCS) to remove thermal loads from the dry well. The PCCS heat exchangers remove core decay power by free convection and transfer this energy to an external pool of water located above containment. To make reliable design decisions about PCCS operation, basic questions must be answered as to how steam mixed with a variety of noncondensable gases will transfer energy to its surroundings. Several relevant experimental or theoretical investigations have been conducted in the past few years to provide improved heat transfer correlations for steam in the presence of noncondensable gases. A series of tests for a scaled PCCS facility have been carried out at the UCB. One of the key objectives of the UCB program was to observe scaled steady-state operation to simulate energy removal for proposed PCCS designs. The UCB facility simulated expected containment accident conditions with pressures that ranged from 1 to [approx] 4 atm. These studies were used to quantify the inhibitive effect of noncondensables on steam condensation heat transfer.

• OSTI ID: 6673003
• Report Number(s): CONF-921102--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States) Journal Volume: 66
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
210100* -- Power Reactors
Nonbreeding
Light-Water Moderated
Boiling Water Cooled
BWR TYPE REACTORS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COMPUTER CODES
CONTAINMENT
CONTAINMENT SYSTEMS
COOLING SYSTEMS
ENERGY TRANSFER
ENGINEERED SAFETY SYSTEMS
ENRICHED URANIUM REACTORS
EVALUATION
FLUID MECHANICS
HEAT TRANSFER
HYDRAULICS
MECHANICS
POWER REACTORS
R CODES
REACTORS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
TESTING
THERMAL ANALYSIS
THERMAL REACTORS
VAPOR CONDENSATION
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS