Fire Modeling of the Heiss Dampf Reaktor Containment (NUREG/CR-6017, SAND93-0528)

On this page:

• Publication Information
• Abstract

Download complete document

• NUREG/CR-6017 (PDF - 5.27 MB)

Publication Information

Manuscript Completed: August 1995
Date Published: September 1995

Prepared by:
V.F. Nicolette
Sandia National Laboratories
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185-0835
Operated by Sandia Corporation

K.T. Yang (Subcontractor)
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556

W. Gleaves, NRC Project Manager

Prepared for:
Division of Engineering Technology
Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, DC 20555-0001

NRC Job Code L1330

Availability Notice

Abstract

This report summarizes Sandia National Laboratories' participation in the fire modeling activities for the German Heiss Dampf Reaktor (HDR) containment building, under the sponsorship of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The purpose of this report is twofold: 1) to summarize Sandia's participation in the HDR fire modeling efforts, and 2) to summarize the results of the international fire modeling community involved in modeling the HDR fire tests.

Calculations were conducted for an HDR oil fire test using the COMPBRN zone model, and the University of Notre Dame fire field model. COMPBRN had difficulty simulating the fire environment beyond the first 4 minutes following ignition due to instabilities resulting from high wall, ceiling, and hot gas layer temperatures. The Notre Dame fire model results indicate reasonable (and, in some cases, excellent) agreement with the experimental data. Discrepancies between calculation and experiment are explainable in terms of leakage around the doorway of the fire room.

Calculations were also conducted for an HDR cable fire test using the COMPBRN model. Results were obtained for the first 9 minutes of the fire (up to the point at which the door to the fire room was opened in the test). The strengths of COMPBRN are seen to be its ability to model the transient ignition and burning of cable tray fires in preflashover compartments.

Additional comments on the state of fire modeling and trends in the international fire modeling community are also included. It is noted that although the trend internationally in fire modeling is toward the development of the more complex fire field models, each type of fire model has something to contribute to the understanding of fires in nuclear power plants.