Coupled Three-Dimensional Neutronics and Thermal-Hydraulics Analysis for SCWR Core Typical Transients

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wang Lianjie ◽  
Lu Di ◽  
Zhao Wenbo

Transient performance of China supercritical water-cooled reactor (SCWR) with the rated electric power of 1000 MWel (CSR1000) core during some typical transients, such as control rod (CR) ejection and uncontrolled CR withdrawal, is analyzed and evaluated with the coupled three-dimensional neutronics and thermal-hydraulics SCWR transient analysis code. The 3D transient analysis shows that the maximum cladding surface temperature (MCST) retains lower than safety criteria 1260 °C during the process of CR ejection accident, and the MCST retains lower than safety criteria 850 °C during the process of uncontrolled CR withdrawal transient. The safety of CSR1000 core can be ensured during the typical transients under the salient fuel temperature and water density reactivity feedback and the essential reactor protection system.

Author(s):  
Yuta Maruyama ◽  
Satoshi Imura ◽  
Junto Ogawa ◽  
Shuhei Miyake

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has developed the SPARKLE code, which is a PWR plant system transient analysis code that includes a three-dimensional (3D) neutronics module coupled with a thermal-hydraulics module. MHI has performed a study of the applicability of the SPARKLE code to the events which are associated with dynamic changes in power distribution, such as the rod ejection event or the steam line break event. In this paper, MHI has applied the SPARKLE code to the control rod drop event (drop of multiple rods), which features such a power distribution change. In addition, the neutron flux detection is dependent on the location of the dropped rods in this event, which can be dynamically calculated in the SPARKLE code. By applying the SPARKLE code to the control rod drop event, it was confirmed that the safety margin for this event is sufficiently larger than the margin calculated using the current safety analysis method, even if the appropriate conservative assumptions are made.


2021 ◽  
Vol 247 ◽  
pp. 07002
Author(s):  
Tsutomu Okui ◽  
Akifumi Yamaji

The Super FR is one of the SuperCritical Water cooled Reactor (SCWR) concepts with once-through direct cycle plant system. Recently, new design concept of axially heterogeneous core has been proposed, which consists of multiple layers of MOX and blanket fuels. To clarify the safety performance during power transient, safety analyses have been conducted for uncontrolled control rod (CR) withdrawal and CR ejection at full power. RELAP/SCDAPSIM code was used for the safety analysis. The results show that the peak cladding surface temperature (PCST) is high in the upper MOX fuel layer. It is also shown that axial temperature gradient of cladding greatly increases in a short period. Suppressing such large temperature gradient may be a design issue for the axially heterogeneous core from the viewpoint of ensuring fuel integrity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 247 ◽  
pp. 07019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaux Faucher ◽  
Davide Mancusi ◽  
Andrea Zoia

In this work, we present the first dynamic calculations performed with the Monte Carlo neutron transport code TRIPOLI-4R with thermal-hydraulics feedback. For this purpose, the Monte Carlo code was extended for multi-physics capabilities and coupled to the thermal-hydraulics subchannel code SUBCHANFLOW. As a test case for the verification of transient simulation capabilities, a 3x3-assembly mini-core benchmark based on the TMI-1 reactor is considered with a pin-by-pin description. Two reactivity excursion scenarios initiated by control-rod movement are simulated starting from a critical state and compared to analogous simulations performed using the Serpent 2 Monte-Carlo code. The time evolution of the neutron power, fuel temperature, coolant temperature and coolant density are analysed to assess the multi-physics capabilities of TRIPOLI-4. The stabilizing e_ects of thermal-hydraulics on the neutron power appear to be well taken into account. The computational requirements for massively parallel calculations are also discussed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
David William Hummel ◽  
David Raymond Novog

Abstract The Canadian supercritical water-cooled reactor concept features a re-entrant fuel channel wherein coolant first travels down a center flow tube and then up around the fuel elements. Previous work demonstrated that in cases of sudden coolant flow reduction or reversal (such as that which would result from a large pipe break near the core inlet), the coolant density reduction around the fuel has a positive reactivity effect that results in a power excursion. Such a transient is inherently self-terminating since the inevitable density reduction in the center flow tube has a very large negative reactivity effect. Nevertheless, a brief power pulse would ensue. In this work, the possibility of mitigating the power pulse with a fast-acting shutdown system was explored. The shutdown system model, consisting of bottom-inserted neutron absorbing blades and realistic estimates of insertion rates and trip conditions, was added to a full-core coupled spatial neutron kinetics and thermal-hydraulics model. It was demonstrated that such a system can effectively mitigate both the peak magnitude of the power excursion and its duration.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Csaba Maráczy ◽  
György Hegyi ◽  
István Trosztel ◽  
Emese Temesvári

The aim of the supercritical water reactor-fuel qualification test (SCWR-FQT) Euratom-China collaborative project is to design an experimental facility for qualification of fuel for the supercritical water-cooled reactor. The facility is intended to be operated in the LVR-15 research reactor in the Czech Republic. The pressure tube of the FQT facility encloses four fuel rods that will operate in similar conditions to the evaporator of the HPLWR reactor. This article deals with the three-dimensional (3D) coupled neutronic-thermohydraulic steady-state and transient analysis of LVR-15 with the fueled loop. Conservatively calculated enveloping parameters (e.g., reactivity coefficients) were determined for the safety analysis. The control rod withdrawal analysis of the FQT facility with and without reactor SCRAM was carried out with the KIKO3D-ATHLET-coupled dynamic code.


Author(s):  
Lianjie Wang ◽  
Wenbo Zhao ◽  
Ping Yang ◽  
Bingde Chen ◽  
Dong Yao

A coupled three dimensional neutronics/thermal-hydraulics code STTA (SCWR Three dimensional Transient Analysis code) is developed for SCWR core transient analysis. Nodal Green’s Function Method based on the second boundary condition (NGFMN_K) is used for solving transient neutron diffusion equation. The SCWR sub-channel code ATHAS is integrated into NGFMN_K through the serial integration coupling approach. The NEACRP-L-335 PWR benchmark problem and SCWR rod ejection problems are studied to verify STTA. Numerical results show that the PWR solution of STTA agrees well with reference solutions and the SCWR solution is reasonable. The coupled code can be well applied to the core transients and accidents analysis with 3-D core model during both subcritical pressure and supercritical pressure operation.


Author(s):  
L. Holt ◽  
U. Rohde ◽  
M. Seidl ◽  
A. Schubert ◽  
P. Van Uffelen ◽  
...  

In the last two decades the reactor dynamics code DYN3D was coupled to thermal hydraulics system codes, a sub-channel thermal hydraulics code and CFD codes. These earlier developed code systems allow modeling of the thermal hydraulics phenomena occurring during reactor transients and accidents in greater detail. Still these code systems lack a sufficiently sophisticated fuel behavior model, which is able i.e. to take into account the fission gas behavior during normal operation, off-normal conditions and transients. To our knowledge a two-way coupling to a fuel performance code hasn’t so far been reported in the open literature for calculating a full core with detailed and well validated fuel behavior models. A new two-way coupling approach between DYN3D and the fuel performance code TRANSURANUS is presented. In the coupling, DYN3D provides the time-dependent rod power and thermal hydraulics conditions to TRANSURANUS, which in turn transfers parameters like fuel temperature and cladding temperature back to DYN3D. The main part of the development is a general TRANSURANUS coupling interface that is applicable for linking of any other reactor dynamics codes, thermal hydraulics system codes and sub-channel codes to TRANSURANUS. Beside its generality, other features of this interface are the application at either fuel assembly or fuel rod level, one-way or two-way coupling, automatic switching from steady to transient conditions in TRANSURANUS (including update of the material properties etc.), writing of all TRANSURANUS output files and the possibility of manual pre- and post-calculations with TRANSURANUS in standalone mode. The TRANSURANUS code can be used in combination with this coupling interface in various scenarios: different fuel compositions in the reactor types BWR, PWR, VVER, HWR and FBR, considering time scales from milliseconds (i.e. RIA) over seconds/ minutes (i.e. LOCA) to years (i.e. normal operation) and thence different reactor states. Results of DYN3D-TRANSURANUS are shown for a control rod ejection transient in a German PWR. In particular, it appears that for all burn-up levels the two-way coupling approach systematically calculates higher maximum values for the node fuel enthalpy (max. difference of 46 J/g) and node centerline fuel temperature (max. difference of 181 K), compared to DYN3D standalone in best estimate calculations. These differences can be completely explained by the more detailed TRANSURANUS modeling of fuel thermal conductivity, radial power density profile and heat transfer in the gap. As known from fuel performance codes, the modeling of the heat transfer in the gap is sensitive and causes also larger differences in case of low burn-up. The numerical convergence for DYN3D-TRANSURANUS is quick and stable. The coupled code system can improve the assessment of safety criteria, at a reasonable computational cost with a CPU time of less than seven hours without parallelization.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yao Lei ◽  
Xia Bangyang ◽  
Lu Di ◽  
Wang Lianjie

Abstract A new type of simplified assembly without “water rod” or solid moderator is identified to simplify China Supercritical Water-cooled Reactor with the rated electric power of 1000 MWel (CSR1000) core structure. A study on the properties of this new assembly has been carried out. Under the condition of heat full power, maximum cladding surface temperature (MCST) is 658 °C, very close to safety criterion 650 °C, and maximum linear heat generation rate (MLHGR) is 40.0 kW/m, slightly higher than safety criterion 39 kW/m. Considering rod stuck criterion, the maximum keff is 0.9833, lower than safety criterion 0.99. The discharge burn-up reduced to 21368 MWd/t, a sharp decreasing of 31.1%. This simplified assembly provides a new idea for solving the problem of complex structure of supercritical water-cooled reactor (SCWR).


Author(s):  
Asuka Matsui ◽  
Masashi Tamitani ◽  
Yoshiro Kudo ◽  
Sho Takano ◽  
Tatsuya Iwamoto ◽  
...  

TRACG code, coupling a three-dimensional neutron kinetics model for the reactor core with thermal-hydraulics based on two-fluid conservation equations, is a best-estimate (BE) code for BWRs to realistically simulate their transient and accidental behaviors. TRACG05 is the latest version and was originally developed to analyze Reactivity Initiated Accident (RIA). TRACG05 incorporates the same neutronics model of the latest core simulator with a three-group analytic-polynomial nodal expansion method. In addition to application to RIA safety analyses, TRACG05 has been planned to apply to safety analyses for Anticipated Operational Occurrences (AOOs) in BWRs by using a Best Estimate Plus Uncertainty (BEPU) methodology. To apply BEPU with TRACG05 to BWR AOOs, validations must be performed to evaluate the uncertainties of models relevant to important phenomena by comparing with appropriate test results for BWR AOOs. At first, a PIRT (Phenomena Identification and Ranking Table) was developed for each event scenario in AOOs to identify relevant physical processes and to determine their relative importance. According to the PIRT, an assessment matrix was established for separate effects tests (SETs), component effects tests (CETs), integral effects tests (IETs), and integral BWR plant start-up tests. The assessment matrix related the important phenomena to the test database, which was confirmed that all the important phenomena were covered by all tests specified in the matrix. According to the assessment matrix, comparison analyses have been specified to perform systematic and comprehensive validations of TRACG05 applicability to AOOs. The comparison analyses were done as the integrated code system with the up-stream reactor core design codes, therefore higher quality was enabled to evaluate the safety parameters. As the result, the uncertainties of important models in TRACG05 were determined so as to enable BEPU approaches for AOO safety issues. Here, as a SET, comparisons between TRACG05 and experimental data of void fraction in a bundle simulating an actual fuel bundle, which is one of the most important models in the application of TRACG05 to AOO analyses are shown. In addition, as pressurization event in AOOs, comparisons between TRACG05 and experimental data of Peach Bottom 2 Turbine Trip Test, which is one of integral tests for a BWR plant, are shown. This is the only test showing large neutron flux increase and strong coupling of neutron kinetics and thermal-hydraulics in the core due to void and Doppler feedbacks. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis regarding a delay time of control rod (CR) insertion initiation which was the most sensitive uncertainty to the results is also shown.


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