Core thermal hydraulic behavior during the reflood phase of cold-leg lbloca experiments using the atlas test facility

Abstract

Several experimental tests to simulate a reflood phase of a cold-leg LBLOCA of the APR1400 have been performed using the ATLAS facility. This paper describes the related experimental results with respect to the thermal-hydraulic behavior in the core and the system-core interactions during the reflood phase of the cold-leg LBLOCA conditions. The present descriptions will be focused on the LB-CL-09, LB-CL-1l, LB-CL-14, and LB-CL-15 tests performed using the ATLAS. The LB-CL-09 is an integral effect test with conservative boundary condition; the LB-CL-1l and -14 are integral effect tests with realistic boundary conditions, and the LB-CL-15 is a separated effect test. The objectives of these tests are to investigate the thermal-hydraulic behavior during an entire reflood phase and to provide reliable experimental data for validating the LBLOCA analysis methodology for the APR1400. The initial and boundary conditions were obtained by applying scaling ratios to the MARS simulation results for the LBLOCA scenario of the APR 1400. The ECC water flow rate from the safety injection tanks and the decay heat were simulated from the start of the reflood phase. The simulated core power was controlled to be 1.2 times that of the ANS-73 decay heat curve for LB-CL-09 and 1.02 times that of the ANS-79 decay curve for LB-CL-11, -14, and -15. The simulated ECC water flow rate from the high pressure safety injection pump was 0.32 kg/s. The present experimental data showed that the cladding temperature behavior is closely related to the collapsed water level the core and the downcomer.