Validation of TRACE in the Field of Liquid Metal Heat Transfer

The validation of system codes like TRACE is an ongoing task especially in areas with limited or almost no application like liquid metal flow. Therefore, extensive validation efforts are necessary to increase the confidence in the code predictions. TRACE has been successfully validated and applied to lead-alloy cooled systems. The results gained with lead-alloy coolants could be extrapolated to other liquid metals with the necessary care. Nevertheless, dedicated investigations with the different liquid metals are mandatory to confirm the extrapolations. In the present case, the validation work focuses on liquid metal heat transfer in pipes and rod bundles under forced convection. To take advantage of a greater data base, several liquid metals have been implemented into the code. In addition, new coolants allow supporting analysis of liquid metals loops which are in the design or construction stage. Concerning the validation, several experiments have been found, conducted by other investigators, which are modeled with the modified TRACE version. The results indicate that the chosen heat transfer models for pipe and bundle flow are applicable. In case of deviations, physical sound reasons can be provided to explain them.