Benchmark Simulation of the Natural Convection Shutdown Heat Removal Test Facility Using SAM

Abstract

Natural convection systems are a promising method to passively remove heat from reactor cavities during loss of forced flow accident scenarios. At Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), a highly instrumented Natural Convection Shutdown Heat Removal Test Facility (NSTF) was used to demonstrate the effectiveness of air-cooled natural convection systems. In previous work, RELAP5-3D simulations were performed on this facility with favorable comparisons to experiment for mass flow rate, pressure drop, air temperature increase, and air velocity. Both experimental and simulation efforts with this facility present a useful opportunity to perform a benchmark study with the System Analysis Module (SAM). SAM is an advanced thermal-hydraulic system code currently in development at ANL for advanced non–light water reactor safety analysis.

Keywords:

• SAM
• systems analysis
• natural convection
• reactor cavity cooling system

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the U.S Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Energy Advanced Reactor Technology. The submitted manuscript has been cocreated by UChicago Argonne, LLC, Operator of ANL, which is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science laboratory operated under contract number DE-AC02-06CH11357.