Results of 0.5% cold-leg small-break LOCA experiments at ROSA-IV/LSTF: Effect of break orientation

Abstract

Three 0.5% cold-leg small-break loss-of-coolant accident (SBLOCA) experiment were conducted at the ROSA-IV Large Scale Test Facility (LSTF) to investigate the effects of break orientation on system thermal-hydraulic responses. In these three experiments, the break hole was located at the side, bottom, and top of the horizontal cold leg, respectively. Although the key phenomena observed in the three experiments were basically the same, the break flow rate was affected by the break orientation when phase stratification occured in the cold leg; the break flow rate was largest for the side break and smallest for the top break. The RELAP5/MOD2 code failed to predict the difference in the break flow rate observed in the experiments. Modification to the break flow calculation models, for both subcooled and two-phase flow discharge conditions, resulted in good agreement between data and predictions.