Post-Test Investigations of BFBT Critical Power Tests With Trace

The validation of heat transfer models of safety analysis codes such as TRACE is very important due to the strong interaction of the thermal hydraulics parameters with the core neutronics. TRACE is the reference system code of the US NRC for LWR. It is being developed and extensively validated within the international CAMP-program. In this paper, the validation of heat transfer models of TRACE related to the prediction of the critical power is presented. The validation is based on a large number of critical power tests performed in the NUPEC BFBT (BWR Full-Size Fine-Mesh Bundle Tests) facility in Japan. These tests were analysed with the TRACE Version 5 RC 2. The comparison of predictions with the experimental data shows good agreement. The developed TRACE model and the comparison of experimental data with code results will be presented and discussed.