Validation of IVA Computer Code for Flow Boiling Stability Analysis

IVA is a computer code for modeling of transient multiphase, multi-component, non-equilibrium flows in arbitrary geometry including flow boiling in 3D nuclear reactors. This work presents part of the verification procedure of the code. We analyze the stability of flow boiling in natural circulation loop. Experimental results collected on the AREVA/FANP KATHY loop regarding frequencies, mass flows and decay ratio of the oscillations are used for comparison. The comparison demonstrates the capability of the code to successfully simulate such class of processes.