SIMULATION OF PWR PLANT BY A NEW VERSION OF TRAC-PF1 CODE INCLUDING A THREE-DIMENSIONAL NEUTRONIC MODEL AND A TRANSPORT BORON MODEL

摘要

This paper is aimed at presenting a solution method for time-dependent problems coupling thermal-hydraulic behavior and neutronic changes during selected transients in Pressurized Water Reactors. A two-group three-dimensional reactor kinetics model, based on the Analytical Nodal Method with a detailed feedback model, has been implemented in TRAC-PF1 code replacing the original point-kinetics approximation. A geometry conversion was done to match, in the core discretization, the cylindrical geometry of the TRAC-PF1 with the Cartesian geometry of the three-dimensional neutronic model. In this version of TRAC-PF1, named TRAC-EN for IBM computers, a Boron transport model has been implemented. The transient Boron concentration is computed from a Boron mass balance after the coolant mass, energy and momentum balances have been completed. In order to evaluate the new code capabilities, a model of the two-loops 600 MW Westinghouse reactor was implemented. Some specific PWR transients that exhibit interesting nuclear and thermal-hydraulic responses, e.g., control rod ejection and pressurization transients, are presented. To check the Boron transport model, a local Boron dilution transient was analyzed. The results obtained by using the space- and time- dependent neutronic model can not be predicted by point kinetics approximation. Furthermore, some events that apparently concern only the core, are also involving the primary circuit the responses of which can not be neglected because they affect the neutronic behavior.