Making FAC Calculations With BRT-CICERO™ and Updating to Version 3.0

The surveillance of Flow Accelerated Corrosion (FAC) on secondary pipes is a major concern for every nuclear power plant operator. After the Surry accident in 1986, EDF launched a computer code development program to monitor this degradation phenomenon. A chemical corrosion model has been developed, based on laboratory test results obtained by EDF R&D since the late 70’s. This model enables to compute the wall thickness loss of pipes submitted to FAC, with respect to the thermo-hydraulic conditions, the fluid chemistry, the material chromium content, the pipe geometry and the cycles duration.