The document deals with the application of a numerical model, called POTEL, to determine the electrical power to be supplied to hollow rods, available in the LOBI experimental simulator, in order to simulate the performance of the nuclear fuel. Hollow rods are easy to construct but have a thermal capacity much lower than the reference nuclear fuel rods. The difference becomes important in transient conditions. In those conditions electrical power must be controlled in order to reproduce the temperature transient expected on the surface of the nuclear fuel rods. A complex software was developed to determine the electrical power transient based on the inverse solution for transient conduction heat transfer, i.e. the Fourier equation. Reference conditions (surface temperature and heat flux) were calculated by the RELAP code for nuclear fuel in the expected experimental conditions and were transformed into electrical power to be supplied to LOBI heaters during the actual experimental conditions (obviously if the code prediction was wrong – to be demonstrated a posteriori – the calculated transient for electrical power resulted inconsistent with the occurring thermal-hydraulic conditions). The application of the software to the experiment B-302 performed in LOBI test facility is discussed in this report. The report also includes the discussion of the results obtained from the pre-test analysis of the experiment. Pre-test is essential to optimize the scaling design of the experiment and to provide data for a ‘clear’ (non-biased) interpretation of code capabilities (pre-test is performed before the execution of the experiment and related results are later-on compared with experimental data). LOBI was a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) simulator installed in the EC center of Ispra Italy supported by EURATOM.

LOBI test B-302: electric power evaluation and pre-test analysis performed by RELAP4/MOD6 computer code", University of Pisa Report, DCMN - RP 002(82), Pisa (I)

D'Auria F.
Co-primo
Methodology
;
1982-01-01

Abstract

The document deals with the application of a numerical model, called POTEL, to determine the electrical power to be supplied to hollow rods, available in the LOBI experimental simulator, in order to simulate the performance of the nuclear fuel. Hollow rods are easy to construct but have a thermal capacity much lower than the reference nuclear fuel rods. The difference becomes important in transient conditions. In those conditions electrical power must be controlled in order to reproduce the temperature transient expected on the surface of the nuclear fuel rods. A complex software was developed to determine the electrical power transient based on the inverse solution for transient conduction heat transfer, i.e. the Fourier equation. Reference conditions (surface temperature and heat flux) were calculated by the RELAP code for nuclear fuel in the expected experimental conditions and were transformed into electrical power to be supplied to LOBI heaters during the actual experimental conditions (obviously if the code prediction was wrong – to be demonstrated a posteriori – the calculated transient for electrical power resulted inconsistent with the occurring thermal-hydraulic conditions). The application of the software to the experiment B-302 performed in LOBI test facility is discussed in this report. The report also includes the discussion of the results obtained from the pre-test analysis of the experiment. Pre-test is essential to optimize the scaling design of the experiment and to provide data for a ‘clear’ (non-biased) interpretation of code capabilities (pre-test is performed before the execution of the experiment and related results are later-on compared with experimental data). LOBI was a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) simulator installed in the EC center of Ispra Italy supported by EURATOM.
1982
DCMN RP
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11568/891687
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