Analysis of the Ingress Of Coolant Event tests performed in the upgraded ICE facility aimed at ECART code validation

In the present work, the efforts on the validation of the ECART code against the eight tests performed in the upgraded Ingress of Coolant Event (ICE) facility are discussed. This activity has been carried out to extend the validation of the ECART code to incidental sequences related to future fusion plants. The upgraded ICE facility consists of a boiler, injecting water at high pressure inside a low-pressure tank simulating the Plasma Chamber (PC). This PC is in turn connected at the Vacuum Vessel (VV) through a plate simulated a divertor. The PC is also connected to the Pressure Suppression System (PSS) utilizing several relief pipes closed by magnetic valves, opening when the PC total pressure exceeds 150 kPa. The PSS is initially filled with 0.5 m3 of water. Finally, the VV is connected, through a narrow pipe, with the Drain Tank (DT). Eight tests were performed in this upgraded ICE facility, investigating different numbers of relief pipes, different initial PC and VV temperatures, and different mass flow rates, pressures, and temperatures of the injected water. The employed ECART code couples three modules: a thermal-hydraulic module, an aerosol-vapor transport phenomena module and a chemistry one. Although, only the thermal-hydraulic code section was activated in the present work due to the characteristics of the ICE tests. The obtained results by ECART showed an overall good agreement with the experimental data. This confirms that ECART is also a valuable tool for the safety analysis in future fusion plants, as already pointed out in previous works.