CFD-Tools Qualification for Thermal-Hydraulics Pressurized Thermal Shock Analysis

Abstract

This paper explains the numerical program concerning the E.D.F. CFD tools qualification for Safety Injection studies. Within the frame of the plant life time project, an analysis has shown that the most severe loading conditions are generated by a pressurized injection of cold water in the downcomer of a Reactor Pressure Vessel. For this kind of transients, a thermal hydraulics study has to be carried out in order to better adjust the accurate distribution of the fluid temperature in the downcomer. For that, the numerical tools have to be able to simulate the physical phenomena present during the Pressurized Thermal Shock (PTS). For this qualification task, we have investigated several configurations related to an injection of cold water particularly in cold leg but also in a downcomer. Two experiment test cases have been studied and this paper gives a comparison between experiment and numerical results in terms of temperature field.