Application of the EUCLID Integrated Code’s HYDRA-IBRAE/LM Thermal Hydraulic Module for Analyzing the Steam Generators of Sodium Cooled Reactor Plants

Abstract

Application of computation tools resting on contemporary physical and mathematical models for substantiating the design solutions adopted for various heat-transfer equipment components helps save time, manpower, and financial resources of design institutions. The variety of both existing reactors and those being designed, which differ from one another both in design and type of coolants calls for the availability of a versatile thermal hydraulic computer code suited for a wide range of applications. The new-generation HYDRA-IBRAE/LM thermal hydraulic module of the EUCLID integrated code, which has been developed as part of the Proryv (Breakthrough) Project, meets these requirements. The operation of this thermal hydraulic module as part of the integrated code opens the possibility to simulate an essentially wider range of reactor plant operation modes and, as a consequence, those of individual heat-transfer equipment components. The developed thermal hydraulic module, which has been certified at the Scientific and Engineering Center for Nuclear and Radiation Safety (SEC NRS), offers the possibility to analyze the thermal hydraulics of sodium, lead, lead–bismuth, gas, and water coolants in various NPP equipment items. Reactor plant steam generators (SGs) belong to the category of equipment components most complex for modeling since they may contain two types of coolants. The article presents study results demonstrating the code’s abilities to analyze in a correct way the processes in the steam generators of only sodium cooled reactor plants, because these plants exist and are actively operated in Russia and around the world. The data presented in the article allow a conclusion to be drawn that the thermal hydraulic module developed at IBRAE RAS is an efficient tool for numerically analyzing complex heat-transfer processes in reactor plants. By using an extended system of closing correlations implemented in the module, it is possible to perform substantiation of design thermal engineering solutions as applied to individual heat-transfer equipment components.