Heat Removal Performance Evaluation of Several Passive Containment Cooling Systems during Loss of Coolant Accident

As a passive containment cooling system (PCCS), which is adopted in simplified BWRs, several concepts, differing in cooling location and method, such as the suppression chamber water wall, the drywell water wall, the isolation condenser (I/C) and the drywell cooler, have been considered. This paper summarizes the characteristics of each PCCS concept, and the analysis results of the performance for several PCCSs during a main steam line break LOCA for a reference simplified BWR plant, obtained by the newly developed containment thermalhydraulic response analysis code TOSPAC.

The performance comparison suggests that I/C and drywell cooler have good heat removal capability with regard to the smallest heat transfer area among PCCS concepts evaluated in the present analysis. I/C removes decay heat efficiently, since it absorbs steam directly from the reactor pressure vessel, which is the hottest portion inside the containment. The suppression chamber water wall is ineffective, mainly due to high non-condensable gas partial pressure in the suppression chamber, and low suppression pool temperature.

Calculations of other pipe breaks were also implemented for the reference plant adopting I/C as PCCS. The results show the effectiveness of the I/C cooling over a wide range of break spectra.     

An experimental study on evaporative heat transfer coefficient and applications for passive cooling of AP600 steel containment

After TMI and Chernobyl accidents, many efforts have been made to enhance the nuclear safety with passive features. Among such passive features, the passive containment cooling system (PCCS) has been suggested by Westinghouse in the AP600 plant. The containment with PCCS is a dual containment, and consists of a stainless steel vessel and a concrete wall. In the gap between these structures, air and water can counter-currently pass and cool the steel surface. This paper experimentally investigates evaporative heat and mass transfer at the surface of a falling water film with counter-current air flow in a vertical duct with one-side heated plate. Experiments included various conditions of mass flow rate of film and air. Experimental results show the strong effects of water temperature and air mass flow rate, but little effect of the water flow rate. Also, simple analyses based on heat and mass transfer analogy were performed to evaluate the experimental results. With experimental data, a new correlation on evaporative mass transfer coefficient was developed, and with the correlation, the containment pressure and temperature was calculated for the design basis accident of AP600 by the use of CONTEMPT4/MOD5 code implementation.     

应用GOTHIC8.0程序模拟非能动安全壳冷却系统冷凝和蒸发现象的适用性研究

在非能动安全壳冷却系统（PCS）设计基准事故的排热过程中,安全壳内壁面蒸汽冷凝现象和安全壳外壁面水膜蒸发现象是两种非常关键的排热途径。本文应用GOTHIC8.0程序模拟了安全壳内壁面蒸汽冷凝和安全壳外壁面水膜蒸发传热过程,并通过蒸汽冷凝试验和水膜蒸发试验数据,对GOTHIC程序的模拟结果进行了分析和评价。研究结果表明：GOTHIC程序的蒸汽冷凝模型可较好地模拟蒸汽冷凝传热现象;水膜蒸发模型明显低估了水膜蒸发换热量,这对设计基准事故安全壳完整性分析是非常保守的,建议对GOTHIC程序进行适当开发,更好地模拟水膜蒸发换热过程。     

Heat transfer modeling in the vertical tubes of the passive containment cooling system of the simplified boiling water reactor

The long term containment cooling of GE's passive BWR design is based on a new safety system called PCCS (passive containment cooling system). Performance of this system relies on the pressure difference between the drywell and wetwell in case of an accident and on the condensation of steam moving downward inside vertical tubes fully submerged in a water pool initially at room temperature. In this paper a model based on the resolution of momentum equations of both phases, the application of the heat and mass transfer analogy, and the consideration of the presence of a noncondensable gas by diffusion theory in a boundary layer is presented. Assumptions and approximations taken resulted in new methods to estimate film thickness and heat transport from the gas to the interface. Influence of phenomena such as suction, flow development, film waviness, and droplet entrainment has been accounted for. Based on this formulation, a computer programme called HVTNC (heat transfer in vertical tubes with noncondensables) has been built up. HVTNC results have been compared to the experimental data available. Experimental trends have been reproduced. Heat transfer has been found to be severely degraded by the presence of noncondensables whereas high Reynolds numbers of gas flow have been seen to enhance shear stress and therefore, heat transmission. The average error of HVTNC is essentially located at regions where only a residual fraction of heat remains to be transferred, so that minor deviations can be anticipated in the overall heat transfer in the tube. Comparison of HVTNC to other models show a substantial gain of accuracy with respect to earlier models.     

Experimental Study on Heat Removal Characteristics for Water Wall Type Passive Containment Cooling System

To evaluate the heat removal capability of a water wall type cooling system, which is one passive containment cooling system (PCCS), the thermal hydraulic behavior in the suppression pool (S/P) and the outer pool (O/P, flat plate water wall) have been investigated experimentally. The following results were obtained. (1) A thermal stratification boundary, which separates the pools into the upper high temperature and lower low temperature regions, was formed just below the vent tube outlet. (2) Convection heat transfer characteristics in the S/P and O/P along the primary containment vessel (PCV) wall had no significant differences and were those of natural convection. Correlation of the natural convection heat transfer up to the Ra number of 2×10¹⁴ was obtained. (3) Vertical variations of local condensation heat transfer coefficients under a noncondensable gas presence were within ±10% of the average value for the 4.7 m heat transfer length. An experimental correlation for the average condensation heat transfer coefficients was obtained as a function of steam and noncondensable gas mass ratio. (4) An analytical model to evaluate the system performance of the water wall type PCCS was verified. (5) A baffle plate concept to mitigate thermal stratification at the vent outlet and to enlarge the high temperature region in the S/P was considered as a means to improve heat release capability. Thermal hydraulics with a baffle plate were examined, and effectiveness of the baffle plate to improve the heat release capability was confirmed.     

应用GOTHIC程序三维模型模拟综合性能试验热工响应过程

本文选取重大专项综合性能试验开展的主蒸汽管道断裂事故全过程瞬态模拟工况作为基准工况,应用GOTHIC程序进行了详细的三维建模,模拟了试验壳大空间和热阱储热、蒸汽在壳体内壁面冷凝、壳体外壁面水膜蒸发等传热传质过程。通过对比试验数据和程序计算结果,研究试验壳大空间的热工响应特性和程序模型的适用性。研究结果表明:程序模型能很好地分析试验壳温度、压力变化趋势,尤其是在蒸汽大流量喷放后阶段,程序分析结果和试验结果符合很好。另外,喷口的射流类型会显著影响大空间温度分层现象,进而影响蒸汽在试验壳体内壁面的冷凝过程。该研究结果可为后续应用GOTHIC程序分析非能动核电厂安全壳响应的可行性提供参考和借鉴。     

AC600非能动安全壳冷却系统长期效应分析

利用自主开发的用于先进压水堆AC600非能动安全壳冷却系统的专用三维热工水力分析程序PCCSAC－3D，对AC600安全壳在大破口失水事故情况下进行了长期效应分析，该程序把钢安全壳内部的工质分为水蒸汽，不可凝干空气，连续相水和非连续相水，对气相引入k-ε湍流计算模型并考虑由于气体浓度差引起的扩散效应。PCCSAC－3D程序充分考虑了各种空间非均匀的物理因素的影响，能够较精细描述在发生核电厂设计基准情况下出现与安全壳非能动冷却系统有关的各种物理现象，本文对安全壳进行长期效应的分析结果表明，AC600非能动安全壳冷却系统能够保证安全壳的完整性。     

Thermal-hydraulic and stress analysis of AP1000 reactor containment during LOCA in dry cooling mode

Some kinds of break in the reactor coolant system may cause the coolant to exit rapidly from the failure site,which leads to the loss of coolant accident (LOCA).In this paper,a stress analysis of an AP1000 reactor containment is performed in an LOCA,with the passive containment cooling system (PCCS) being available and not available for cooling the wall's containment.The variations in the mechanical properties of the wall's containment,including elastic modulus,strength,and stress,are analyzed using the ABAQUS code.A general two-phase model is applied for modeling thermal-hydraulic behavior inside the containment.Obtained pressure and temperature from thermal-hydraulic models are considered as boundary conditions of the ABAQUS code to obtain distributions of temperature and stress across steel shell of the containment in the accident.The results indicate that if the PCCS fails,the peak pressure inside the containment exceeds the design value.However,the stress would still be lower than the yield stress value,and no risk would threaten the integrity of the containment.     

AC600非能动安全壳冷却系统冷凝传热系数评价

用ＡＣ６００非能动安全壳冷却系统三维热工水力分析程序ＰＣＣＳＡＣ－ＭＤ,对几种常用的冷凝传热系数结构关系式进行了比较。这些结构关系式包括Ｕｃｈｉｄａ关系式,Ｇｉｄｏ－Ｋｏｅｓｔｌ关系式,Ｔａｇａｍｉ关系式和基于传热传质相似原理的关系式。     

基于威斯康辛冷凝试验本体的结构改进及分析

先进压水堆(APWR)是第三代核电技术的代表堆型之一,它采用了非能动安全系统,提高了安全性能。非能动安全壳冷却系统(PCCS)主要利用蒸汽的冷凝来带走安全壳内的热量。本文主要介绍了威斯康辛大学进行的冷凝试验的试验本体结构,应用ANSYS软件对其结构进行了应力分析,并在现有结构的基础上对外部加强筋布置进行了一定的改进和优化。通过计算和比较可以看出,经过改进后的加强筋布置,不仅满足原有的试验要求,结构布置合理,更提高了试验本体的承压能力,使其能够满足更高试验压力的需要。     

增强IVR有效性的堆内注水策略研究

熔融物堆内滞留（IVR）是一项核电厂重要的严重事故管理措施,通过将熔融物滞留在压力容器内,以保证压力容器完整性,并防止某些可能危及安全壳完整性的堆外现象。对于高功率和熔池中金属量相对不足的反应堆,若下封头形成3层熔池结构,则其顶部薄金属层导致的聚焦效应可能对压力容器完整性带来更大的威胁。本文考虑通过破口倒灌及其他工程措施实现严重事故下熔池顶部水冷却,建立熔池传热模型,分析顶部注水的带热能力,建立事件树,分析顶部注水措施的成功概率及IVR的有效性。结果表明,通过压力容器内外同时水冷熔融物,能显著增强IVR措施的有效性。     

Three-dimensional behaviors of the hydrogen and steam in the APR1400 containment during a hypothetical loss of feed water accident

During a hypothetical severe accident in a nuclear power plant (NPP), hydrogen is generated by an active reaction of the fuel-cladding and the steam in the reactor pressure vessel and released with the steam into the containment. In order to mitigate hydrogen hazards which could possibly occur in the NPP containment, a hydrogen mitigation system (HMS) is usually adopted. The design of the next generation NPP (APR1400) developed in Korea specifies that 26 passive autocatalytic recombiners and 10 igniters should be installed in the containment for a hydrogen mitigation. In this study, an analysis of the hydrogen and steam behavior during a total loss of feed water (LOFW) accident in the APR1400 containment has been conducted by using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code GASFLOW. During the accident, a huge amount of hot water, steam, and hydrogen is released into the in-containment refueling water storage tank (IRWST). The current design of the APR1400 includes flap-type openings at the IRWST vents which operate depending on the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the IRWST. It was found from this study that the flaps strongly affect the flow structure of the steam and hydrogen in the containment. The possibilities of a flame acceleration and a transition from deflagration to detonation (DDT) were evaluated by using the Sigma–Lambda criteria. Numerical results indicate that the DDT possibility was heavily reduced in the IRWST compartment by the effects of the flaps during the LOFW accident.     

Development of Evaluation Code for Long-Term Cooling of Containment with Passive Safety Feature

Simplified BWRs are characterized as an adoption of a passive ECCS and a passive containment cooling system (PCCS). While a passive ECCS has a short term core cooling function, a PCCS has a long-term decay heat removal function. As a PCCS, several concepts, differing in cooling location and method employed, have been considered. From the containment thermal- hydraulic response analysis viewpoint, simplified BWRs are essentially different from the current BWRs. For evaluating and comparing the performance of several PCCSs over full break spectra, the new containment safety evaluation code TOSPAC was developed as a preliminary design tool for PCCS. This paper summarizes the thermal-hydraulic modelings of the TOSPAC code and the validity evaluation of the TOSPAC code, compared with TRAC-BF1 calculation.

From the validity evaluation concerning a main steam line break (MSLB) accident analysis for an isolation condenser (I/C) as a PCCS, it was found that the TOSPAC calculation result shows reasonable agreement with that for TRAC, even though the TOSPAC consists of simpler modelings.     

An analysis of containment responses during a station blackout accident

An analysis of the responses of the containment during a station blackout accident is performed for the APR1400 nuclear power plant using MELCOR 2.1. The analysis results show that the containment failure occurs at about 84.14 h. Prior to the failure of the reactor vessel, the containment pressure increases slowly. Then, a rapid increase of the containment pressure occurs when a large amount of hot molten corium is discharged from the reactor pressure vessel to the cavity. The molten corium concrete interaction (MCCI) is arrested when water is flooded over a molten corium in the cavity. The boiling of water in the cavity causes a fast increase in the containment pressure. During the early phase of the accident, a large amount of steam is condensed inside the containment due to the presence of the heat structures. This results in a mitigation of a containment pressure increase. During the late phase, the containment pressure increases gradually due to the addition of steam and gases from an MCCI and water evaporation. It was found that two-thirds of the total mass of steam and gases in the containment is from an MCCI and one-third of the mass is from water evaporation.     

非能动安全壳冷却系统膜状冷凝强化换热设计

非能动安全壳冷却系统(PCCS)能在反应堆发生事故时将安全壳内部的热量及时导出,避免安全壳因超温、超压而失效。为强化换热,本文设想在安全壳内部安装阻隔带和液滴收集装置,通过降低层流区液膜厚度、扰动不可凝气体隔离层并充分利用湍流的换热强化作用,降低总的换热热阻,提高换热效率。以AP1000为例,依托GDLM模型对改进前后安全壳的换热情况进行分析,结果表明,通过安装阻隔带和液滴收集装置,能降低安全壳壁面的液膜厚度,提高壁面热流量,从而实现强化换热。     

延展表面凝结液膜的动量积分方法

采用动量积分方法分析压水堆发生失水事故时在安全壳的内表面上的液膜凝结、再浸润和蒸发过程。由凝结液膜的质量和动量守恒方程导出了凝结液膜在延展表面的子午线方向平均速度的积分-微分方程。假设液膜以层流的方式流动，把导出的积分-微分方程变成容易进行数值积分的液膜速度的一阶常微分方程，由此求得液膜厚度分布。液膜能量守恒方程的解给出了安全壳内壁面的温度分布。     

A PANDA integral test on the effect of light gas on a Passive Containment Cooling System (PCCS)

As part of the Euratom project TEMPEST (Testing and Enhanced Modelling of Passive Evolutionary Systems Technology for Containment Cooling), a series of five tests was performed in the PANDA facility to experimentally investigate the distribution of hydrogen inside the containment and its impact on the performance of the Passive Containment Cooling System (PCCS) designed for the Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR). In a postulated severe accident a large amount of hydrogen could be released in the Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) as a consequence of the cladding Metal-Water (M-W) reaction and discharged together with steam to the Drywell (DW) compartment. The retention of hydrogen in the DW, instead to be vented in the Wetwell (WW), has a positive effect toward the mitigation of the system pressure build-up. Hydrogen retention in the DW is a consequence of the stratification phenomena driven by the steam-hydrogen density difference. The paper presents the experimental results of the integral Test T1.2 performed in the PANDA facility. Helium was used to simulate hydrogen and the specific PANDA facility configuration included a dead-end volume, allowing for retaining a portion of the released helium in the DW compartment. The results from Test T1.2 showed that the containment end pressure is mainly determined by the redistribution of non-condensable gas inside the containment system and the temporary deterioration of the PCCS performance during the helium release phase plays a minor role.     

Experimental simulation of corium dispersion phenomena in direct containment heating

In a direct containment heating (DCH) accident scenario, the degree of corium dispersion is one of the most significant factors responsible for the reactor containment heating and pressurization. To study the mechanisms of the corium dispersion phenomenon, a DCH separate effect test facility of 1:10 linear scale for Zion PWR geometry is constructed. Experiments are carried out with air-water and air-woods metal simulating steam and molten core materials. The physical process of corium dispersion is studied in detail through various instruments, as well as with flow visualization at several locations. The accident transient begins with the liquid jet discharge at the bottom of the reactor pressure vessel. Once the jet impinges on the cavity bottom floor, it immediately spreads out and moves rapidly to the cavity exit as a film flow. Part of the discharged liquid flows out of the cavity before gas blowdown, and the rest is subjected to the entrainment process due to the high speed gas stream. The liquid film and droplet flows from the reactor cavity will then experience subcompartment trapping and re-entrainment. Consequently, the dispersed liquid droplets that follow the gas stream are transported into the containment atmosphere, resulting in containment heating and pressurization in the prototypic condition. Comprehensive measurements are obtained in this study, including the liquid jet velocity, liquid film thickness and velocity transients in the test cavity, gas velocity and velocity profile in the cavity, droplet size distribution and entrainment rate, and the fraction of dispersed liquid in the containment building. These data are of great importance for better understanding of the corium dispersion mechanisms.     

安全壳模型装置内氢气分布特性及影响因素分析

采用计算流体力学方法,首先利用THAI HM-2实验对CFX分析模型的适用性进行验证,通过与实验数据的比对,表明计算结果与实验数据基本吻合,从而验证选用的模型适合对安全壳模拟装置氢气分布特性的分析。之后,建立待研究中等规模安全壳模型实验装置的三维几何模型和网格模型,采用基准工况+单因素对比的方式,分别模拟湍流浮力射流中心喷射和近壁面喷射工况以及考虑蒸汽壁面冷凝情况下安全壳模型内的氦气(氢气替代工质)流动扩散分布,讨论喷射位置因素、壁面蒸汽凝结效应对氦气分布的影响。分析结果表明,喷射位置对氦气分布的影响主要体现在壁面引流现象上,即氦气流更倾向于沿着安全壳壁面进行流动和扩散;而与安全壳壁面的换热和蒸汽的冷凝会进一步促进大空间自然对流的建立,从而较为显著地提高氦气在安全壳内的扩散和混合效果。     

RPV侧边破口条件下堆外蒸汽爆炸计算分析

针对实际过程中更有可能发生的压力容器（RPV）侧边破口条件开展蒸汽爆炸计算分析。根据经济合作与发展组织（OECD）发布的现象识别与重要度排序表（PIRT）,选取堆外蒸汽爆炸敏感性分析参数,使用MC3D软件建立三维局部破口和二维环状破口几何模型,对影响计算结果的重要参数（破口尺寸、堆坑水位、破口位置、触发条件、液柱碎化和液滴碎化模型）开展RPV侧边破口条件下敏感性分析,获得最恶劣计算工况条件。敏感性分析结果表明,在大破口失水事故（LBLOCA）工况下,当堆坑处于满水位、RPV发生二维侧边环状破口、接触堆坑侧壁面时触发蒸汽爆炸、采用CONST模型和Classical模型时,堆坑侧壁面的压力载荷计算结果最为保守,对堆坑和安全壳完整性威胁最大。