RELAP5, TRACE and APROS Model Benchmark for the IAEA SPE-4 Experiment (NUREG/IA-0533)

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Publication Information

Manuscript Completed: October 2021
Date Published: September 2022

Prepared by:
R.Orosz, T. Varju, Á. Aranyosy, V. Holl, T. Hajas & A. Aszódi

Budapest University of Technology and Economics
Institute of Nuclear Techniques
Műegyetem rkp. 3.
1111 Budapest, Hungary

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)

Availability Notice

Abstract

One-dimensional thermal-hydraulic system codes are often used to predict and investigate different transient scenarios of NPPs. Throughout the years, numerous experimental facilities were constructed in order to simulate the accident behavior of different types of reactors. A frequently studied topic is, whether the simulation codes primarily designed to investigate western-type PWRs could describe the processes of the Russian-type reactors properly.

The main objective of this study is to investigate the SPE-4 experiment conducted on the Hungarian PMK-2 test facility with multiple system codes simultaneously. The integral test facility was operated at nominal pressures and temperatures identical of its reference plant (VVER-440/213), while the volume and power scaling ratios were 1:2070. The current experiment deals with a cold leg break of 7.4%.

The obtained results of the calculations performed with RELAP5, TRACE and the Finnish APROS codes were evaluated by comparing them to the measurement data sets. The qualitative assessment showed that each code is capable of predicting the characteristics of the major processes taking place in the reactor. In addition, a detailed quantitative analysis has also been performed with the original and improved FFT and SAR based methods. Finally, several suggestions had been made regarding the models and the methods used.