Analysis of the Test OECD-PKL2 G7.1 with the Thermal-Hydraulic System Code TRACE (NUREG/IA-0432)

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Publication Information

Manuscript Completed: August 2013
Date Published: September 2013

Prepared by:
S. Belaïd, J. Freixa, O. Zerkak

Paul Scherrer Institut
5232 Villigen PSI
Switzerland

K. Tien, NRC Project Manager

Division of Systems Analysis
Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, DC 20555-0001

Prepared as part of:
The Agreement on Research Participation and Technical Exchange
Under the Thermal-Hydraulic Code Applications and Maintenance Program (CAMP)

Published by:
Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, DC 20555-0001

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Abstract

The test OECD-PKL2 G7.1 is a counterpart of the OECD/NEA ROSA-2 Test 3. These tests consisted of a small break loss-of-coolant-accident experiment concurrent with additional system failures, namely the total failure of the High Pressure Safety Injection system combined with the absence of an early manual secondary side cool down. To prevent a core meltdown a manual secondary depressurization (cooldown) is needed to restore the heat sink through fast reduction of the secondary pressure inducing similar primary pressure behavior, and thus leading to passive accumulator injection and low pressure safety injection. The core exit temperature parameter can be used to detect a core heat up and trigger such accident management procedures.

The test OECD-PKL2 G7.1 was performed to assess the reliability of the core exit temperature measurement and its correlation to the peak cladding temperature, and to investigate the physical processes affecting the performance of the core exit temperature measurement.

In this report, the analysis of test OECD-PKL2 G7.1 using the US-NRC thermal-hydraulics best estimate system code TRACE and based on an existing PKL Mark III model is presented and the obtained results are compared with the experimental data. A good agreement with the experimental data is observed, especially for relevant parameters such as the primary pressure. The predicted core exit and peak cladding temperatures evolutions could also capture the experimental data, although some discrepancies in the shapes of the evolution curves are observed.