R&D of the Next Generation Safety Analysis Methods for Fast Reactors With New Computational Science and Technology: 4 — Experimental Analyses by SIMMER-III for the Integral Verification of COMPASS Available to Purchase

This paper describes experimental analyses using the SIMMER-III computer code, which were precedently carried out to give boundary conditions for the integral verification of the new COMPASS code, which is based on MPS method. Two topics of key phenomena in core disruptive accidents were presented in this paper: molten fuel freezing and dispersion; and boiling behavior of molten fuel pool. Related experimental database are reviewed to select appropriate experiments. To analyze the fuel freezing behavior, the GEYSER out-of-pile and the CABRI-EFM1 in-pile experiments were selected. The SIMMER-III calculations were in good agreement with fuel penetration lengths measured in a series of the GEYSER experiments. The fuel freezing behavior in the CABRI-EFM1 experiment was also reasonably simulated by SIMMER-III. The boiling pool consisting principally of molten fuel/steel mixtures is characterized by the heat transfer between fuel and steel. The CABRI-TPA2 experiment has suggested low transient heat flux from fuel to steel due to a steel vapor blanketing around a steel droplet. SIMMER-III well simulated the steel boiling behavior observed in the CABRI-TPA2 experiment by applying reduced heat transfer coefficients between fuel and steel. These experimental analyses by SIMMER-III have also identified key processes to be clarified by mesoscopic simulations using the COMPASS code.