Study on high-speed calculation of debris bed coolability for sodium-cooled fast reactors

Abstract

Many sensitivity calculations are necessary to evaluate the effect of the uncertainties of Core Disruptive Accident (CDA) scenarios on debris bed coolability for Sodium-cooled Fast Reactors (SFR). This paper describes a calculation model and a technique for high-speed calculations of debris bed coolability. Firstly, the detailed coolability calculation model taking into account phase change and vapor-liquid advection for a boiling zone in the debris bed is derived as a single equation. The vapor-liquid advection is based on the momentum equation including inertial, viscous, capillary and gravitational effects. In addition, the streamlined calculation which ignores inertial and gravitational effects for the boiling zone is proposed. Secondly, both the detailed and streamlined calculation models are validated through the analysis of the Sandia ACRR-D10 in-pile experiments. Then, the effects of the ignoring on debris bed coolability are evaluated through sensitivity calculations. Thirdly, the speed-up technique for the streamlined calculation model is proposed which solves the boiling zone by the combination of transient and steady state calculations and allows using coarse mesh size and time step. Owing to the technique, the calculation time becomes about 1/50. The application of the speed-up technique to the streamlined calculation model is confirmed under typical SFR conditions. Finally, it is demonstrated that the streamlined calculation model and the speed-up technique enable us to perform many sensitivity calculations in a realistic time. The model and technique developed in this study is practical to evaluate the effect of the uncertainties of CDA scenarios on debris bed coolability for SFR.

Keywords

• sodium-cooled fast reactor
• debris bed coolability
• high-speed calculation
• streamlined calculation model
• speed-up technique