Assessment of RELAP/SCDAPSIM/MOD3.4 Prediction Capability with Severe Fuel Damage Scoping Test

Abstract

The Power Burst Facility (PBF) was designed to provide experimental data to determine the thresholds for failure during accident conditions. Thus, the PBF benchmark using severe accidental analysis codes is essential to designing reactor for current directions. This assessment verified and validated that the RELAP/SCDAPSIM/MOD3.4 code can be used to assess the Severe Fuel Damage Scoping Test (SFD-ST) performed in the PBF facility. This study compares the cladding temperatures and hydrogen production results calculated by the RELAP/SCDAPSIM/MOD3.4 code with experimental data and calculated results from the SCDAP/RELAP5/MOD3.2 and SCDAP/RELAP5/MOD3.3 codes. The interested parameters are cladding temperature and hydrogen production since the cladding temperature affects hydrogen production and consequently influences the accident scenario. The calculated cladding temperatures and hydrogen production results from the RELAP/SCDAPSIM/MOD3.4 code are in a good agreement with the experimental data and are generally more reasonable than the calculated results from the SCDAP/RELAP5/MOD3.2 and SCDAP/RELAP5/MOD3.3 codes. There are some discrepancies in the cladding temperature and hydrogen production results but they are expected.