Analysis of thermal hydraulic system code LOCUST V1.2 with ECC thermal mixing test facility

Abstract

The safety injection (SI) system might be put into use, and the coolant at high temperature will mix with the supcooled water under Loss Of Coolant Accident (LOCA). The thermo-hydraulic phenomena associated with the thermal mixing of coolant and supcooled water will directly affect the judgment on core reflooding. China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) independently developed and designed a thermal hydraulic system code named LOCUST, and the verification of thermal mixing models in LOCUST is necessary. This paper will introduce the thermal mixing tests at the T-junction based on Emergency Core Cooling System in Xi'an Jiaotong University (ECCS-XJTU) experimental facility, which were mainly conducted for the mixing between subcooled water injected from the SI pipe with a range of 25–125 kg/h in mass flow and the pure steam in the primary pipe with a range of 100–500 kg/h in mass flow. Besides, the fluid temperature and the dynamic vapor quality after mixing in tests are analyzed, and the simulations of 25 thermal mixing tests using the LOCUST 1.2 code are performed. The results show that the maximum relative error of LOCUST in mass flow of liquid is within 13.8 %, and the maximum relative error of LOCUST in temperature is within 8 %, which validates the reliability and accuracy of simulations of LOCUST for two-phase thermal mixing in LOCA.