Assemblies design and modeling analysis of a new fine mesh neutronics/thermal-hydraulics coupling benchmark for plate-type PWR core

Abstract

In order to support the verification of neutronics/thermal-hydraulics coupling calculation method or simulation codes at the fine mesh for plate-type pressurized water reactor (PWR) with high parameters (which the ratio of power to mass flow rate is greater than 235 kW/kg, the core outlet enthalpy exceeds 1500 kJ/kg), a set of coupling calculation of plate-type PWR based on high parameters (COPHP) is design by Nuclear Power Institute of China (NPIC). Multiple industry research teams, including Tsinghua University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology, participated in the production of COPHP benchmark. This article provides a detailed explanation of the completed assembly design and modeling calculations, and provides the keff, pin-by-pin wise fine mesh relative power distribution, and deviation results calculated for 10 conditions of 6 assemblies using RMC, OpenMC, and KYLIN V2 software. The results show that: 1) when using the same cross-sectional library, the OpenMC calculation results are in good agreement with the RMC results. Taking ENDF/B-VII.1 as an example, the maximum deviation of keff in the entire burnup process of all assemblies is −157pcm, the maximum deviation of relative power is −1.13 %, and the maximum power weight error(PWE) is 0.226 %. 2) Compared between KYLIN V2 and the RMC by using ENDF/B-VII.1, the maximum deviation of keff is −468pcm, the maximum deviation of relative power is −1.49 %, and the maximum PWE is 0.316 % when calculating the standard assemblies with all control rod out(ARO) condition and two burnable poison assemblies. The maximum deviation of keff is −795pcm, the maximum deviation of relative power is 1.81 %, and the maximum PWE is 0.369 % when calculating the standard assemblies with all control rod inserted(ARI) conditions.