Subchannel Analysis with Mechanistic Methods for Thermo-Hydro Dynamics in BWR Fuel Bundles

In order to predict the critical power or void fraction in BWR fuel bundles and the DNB heat flux of PWR fuel assemblies, the boiling transition analysis code called “CAPE” with mechanistic models has been developed in the IMPACT project by NUPEC. The objective of the CAPE code development is to perform with good accuracy the safety evaluation for a new type or improved fuel bundle design of BWR and PWR without full-scale experiments or any tuning parameters in the analysis code. In this study, the CAPE for BWR was validated by the test analysis for 8 × 8 fuel bundles comparing with the void distribution data of the experimental data, which was carried out under several operational conditions in a BWR. The computations were carried out by changing the operational parameter such as the inlet subcooling, mass flow rate and the power output of the fuel bundles. Resultantly, the thermal equilibrium quality at the outlet ranges from 2% to 25%. From these results, though the predictive accuracy of the analytical results are in close agreement with the experimental data, it was noted that the errors were relatively outstanding in some subchannels, which was surrounded by the heated fuel rods and partially unheated walls, such as an unheated rod, a water rod and a separation wall of the channel box. The reason for this error is thought to be that the cross sectional void distribution was partially distributed in such subchannels surrounded partially by unheated wall, so the multidimensional void distribution structure might be formed in these subchannels. Under such conditions, it is very important to take into consideration the multidimensional structure of the two-phase flow in subchannel, and perhaps improve the estimation or correlations for the distribution parameter, as well as the amount of void exchange between neighboring subchannels.