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Multi-Scale Coupling of Trace and TrioCFD with the Interface for CodeCoupling (ICoCo) (NUREG/IA-0542)

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Publication Information

Manuscript Completed: July 2022
Date Published: June 2025

Prepared by:
Kanglong Zhang; Victor Hugo Sanchez-Espinoza

Institute for Neutron Physics and Reactor Technology (INR), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Baden-Württemberg, 76344, Germany

A. Hsieh, NRC Program 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:
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, DC 20555-0001

Availability Notice

Abstract

This report describes the multi-scale coupling of the system code - TRACE and the open-source CFD code – TrioCFD for a better description of the multi-dimensional thermal-hydraulic phenomena inside the Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) of a Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR).

The Interface for Code Coupling (ICoCo) is a generic interface for code coupling and it defines a standardized framework for the code functions. ICoCo is already a built-in module embedded in TrioCFD. To couple TRACE with the open-source CFD code - TrioCFD, a specific ICoCo-module for TRACE was developed. In this report, the implemented spatial mapping of the involved thermal-hydraulic domains and the time synchronization of the involved solvers are described. A domain overlapping approach and the open-source MEDCoupling library are utilized for this purpose. Besides, an explicit operator splitting method is implemented for the data transfers during the time advancement of both codes.

The prediction capability of the coupled code is demonstrated by the analysis of a 3D-coolantmixing problem performed in a VVER-1000 reactor. The results obtained by TRACE standalone and by the coupled system TRACE/TrioCFD were compared together and it shows that the coupled code could predict better coolant mixing along the core height than TRACE-standalone.

Page Last Reviewed/Updated Wednesday, June 25, 2025