Tests simulating Pressurized Water Reactor pressurizers under inflow and outflow conditions have been performed at MIT. Prediction of pressurizer pressure requires accurate models of wall heat transfer as well as interfacial liquid-steam heat transfer. The US NRC has two computer programs used for predicting thermal hydraulic behavior in reactors; RELAP5 and TRAC-M. TRAC-M is the Consolidated Thermal-hydraulics Code developed by combining models from TRAC-B and RELAP5 into a modernized version of TRAC-P. The component models from RELAP5 and TRAC-B have been ported to TRAC-M but not the constitutive models. A suite of assessment cases are being developed to guide the constitutive model improvement process. Assessment against data will determine which constitutive relations need to be ported to TRAC-M. This paper compares the RELAP5 and TRAC-M codes against MIT pressurizer data. As water is injected into the bottom of the pressurizer the steam pressure in the top of the pressurizer rises. The pressure increase rate is controlled by wall and interface condensation rates. Both codes predict this complex compression process reasonably well. The effect of time step size and code options are explored in this paper. The benefits of using two codes to analyze thermal-hydraulic processes are evident from the results.
Skip Nav Destination
10th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering
April 14–18, 2002
Arlington, Virginia, USA
Conference Sponsors:
- Nuclear Engineering Division
ISBN:
0-7918-3597-9
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
Prediction of MIT Pressurizer Data Using RELAP5 and TRAC-M
Rex Shumway,
Rex Shumway
Information Systems Laboratory, Inc., Idaho Falls, ID
Search for other works by this author on:
Mark Bolander,
Mark Bolander
Information Systems Laboratory, Inc., Idaho Falls, ID
Search for other works by this author on:
Birol Aktas
Birol Aktas
Information Systems Laboratory, Inc., Idaho Falls, ID
Search for other works by this author on:
Rex Shumway
Information Systems Laboratory, Inc., Idaho Falls, ID
Mark Bolander
Information Systems Laboratory, Inc., Idaho Falls, ID
Birol Aktas
Information Systems Laboratory, Inc., Idaho Falls, ID
Paper No:
ICONE10-22580, pp. 981-986; 6 pages
Published Online:
March 4, 2009
Citation
Shumway, R, Bolander, M, & Aktas, B. "Prediction of MIT Pressurizer Data Using RELAP5 and TRAC-M." Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering. 10th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering, Volume 3. Arlington, Virginia, USA. April 14–18, 2002. pp. 981-986. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/ICONE10-22580
Download citation file:
22
Views
Related Proceedings Papers
Related Articles
Effect of Vapor Velocity on Condensation of Low-Pressure Steam on Integral-Fin Tubes
J. Heat Transfer (November,2007)
Heat Transfer in Direct Contact Condensation of Steam to Subcooled Water Spray
J. Heat Transfer (August,2001)
The Condensation of Ammonia-Water Mixtures in a Horizontal Shell and
Tube Condenser
J. Heat Transfer (August,2004)
Related Chapters
Introduction
Turbine Aerodynamics: Axial-Flow and Radial-Flow Turbine Design and Analysis
Introduction
ASME International Steam Tables for Industrial Use, Third Edition
U.S. Customary and SI Units
ASME Steam Tables, Compact Edition