2007 International RERTR Meeting

Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the Meeting

Fundamental Approach to TRIGA Steady State Thermal-Hydraulic CHF Analysis

E. E. Feldman
RERTR Program
Nuclear Engineering Division
Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne, IL USA 60439

ABSTRACT

Methods are investigated for predicting the power at which critical heat flux (CHF) occurs in TRIGA reactors that rely on natural convection for primary flow. For a representative TRIGA reactor, two sets of functions are created. For the first set, the General Atomics STAT code and the more widely-used RELAP5-3D code are each employed to obtain reactor flow rate as a function of power. For the second set, the Bernath correlation, the 2006 Groeneveld table, the Hall and Mudawar outlet correlation, and each of the four PGCHF correlations for rod bundles are used to predict the power at which CHF occurs as a function of channel flow rate. The two sets of functions are combined to yield predictions of the power at which CHF occurs in the reactor. A combination of the RELAP5-3D code and the 2006 Groeneveld table predicts 67% more CHF power than does a combination of the STAT code and the Bernath correlation.

 

---

---