Post-test analysis of PIPER-ONE PO-IC-2 experiment by RELAP5/MOD3 codes

Abstract

RELAP5/MOD3.1 was applied to the PO-IC-2 experiment performed in PIPER-ONE facility, which has been modified to reproduce typical isolation condenser thermal-hydraulic conditions. RELAP5 is a well known code widely used at the University of Pisa during the past seven years. RELAP5/MOD3.1 was the latest version of the code made available by the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory at the time of the reported study. PIPER-ONE is an experimental facility simulating a General Electric BWR-6 with volume and height scaling ratios of 1/2,200 and 1./1, respectively. In the frame of the present activity a once-through heat exchanger immersed in a pool of ambient temperature water, installed approximately 10 m above the core, was utilized to reproduce qualitatively the phenomenologies expected for the Isolation Condenser in the simplified BWR (SBWR). The PO-IC-2 experiment is the flood up of the PO-SD-8 and has been designed to solve some of the problems encountered in the analysis of the PO-SD-8 experiment. A very wide analysis is presented hereafter including the use of different code versions