Initial Implementation of Transient VERA-CS

Andrew Gerlach, Brendan Kochunas, Robert Salko, Aaron J. Wysocki

Research output: Other contributionTechnical Report

Abstract

In this milestone the capabilities of both CTF and MPACT were extended to perform coupled transient calculations. This required several small changes in MPACT to setup the problems correctly, perform the edits correctly, and call the appropriate CTF interfaces in the right order. For CTF, revisions and corrections to the transient timestepping algorithm were made, as well as the addition of a new interface subroutine to allow MPACT to drive CTF at each timestep. With the modifications completed, the initial coupled capability was demonstrated on some problems used for code verification, a hypothetical small mini-core, and a Watts Bar demonstration problem. For each of these cases the results showed good agreement with the previous MPACT internal TH feedback model that relied on a simplified fuel heat conduction model and simplified coolant treatment. After the pulse the results are notably different as expected, where the effects of convection of heat to the coolant can be observed. Areas for future work were discussed, including assessment and development of the CTF dynamic fuel deformation and gap conductance models, addition of suitable transient boiling and CHF models for the rapid heating and cooling rates seen in RIAs, additional validation and demonstration work, and areas for improvement to the code input and output capabilities.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationUnited States
DOIs
StatePublished - 2017

Keywords

  • 97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING

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