COMPARATIVE THERMAL-HYDRAULIC ANALYSIS OF THE MYRRHA

SPALLATION LOOP ADOPTING ATHLET AND RELAP5 SYSTEM CODES

S. Palazzo (), K. Velkov (), G. Lerchl (), K. Van Tichelen (*)

() Gesellschaft fr Anlagen und Reaktorsicherheit GRS(mbH), Forschungsinstitute, 85748 Garching b. M., Germany
(*) SCK-CEN, Boeretang 200, 2400 Mol, Belgien

ABSTRACT
In this work, the new version of the ATHLET system code will be tested, in which the physical properties of sodium, molten lead and LBE are implemented. The object of this study is the spallation loop of the MYRRHA facility, in
which the target LBE is circulated by forced convection to remove the heat deposited by the proton beam. A detailed nodalization is set up for performing thermal-hydraulic calculations both in nominal condition and in accidental
scenarios, in order to have a good characterization of the entire loop. Subsequently, the obtained results have been compared to the ones achieved with a previous simulations campaign, which was performed using a version of
RELAP5/mod 3.3 system code purposely modified at University of Pisa to account for LBE properties.

EXPERIMENTAL FACILITY
MYRRHA, a Multi-purpose Hybrid Research Reactor for High-tech Applications, is an experimental reactor which is planned to be built at the
Belgian Nuclear Research Centre SCK-CEN. It consists of a sub-critical nuclear reactor core (keff 0.95) coupled to an external neutron source. In
this external source, neutrons are produced by the spallation reaction, caused by a high intensity proton beam (3.0 mA and 600 MeV) which impinges
on a heavy liquid metal target (LBE).

Simulations matrix
The spallation loop basically consists of a big service vessel filled with LBE,
which is located beside the sub-critical core. From this main vessel, LBE flows
into the target spallation zone, where it interacts with the proton beam to
produce neutrons by the so called spallation reaction. Two horizontal tubes link
the central vertical tube, where actually the spallation reactions occur, to the
main confinement vessel.
The service vessel contains also the main circulation pump, an auxiliary
system for the control of the O2 content of the coolant, the measure
instrumentation and the vacuum system. The whole spallation vessel is kept
under vacuum to avoid the contamination of the beam line by gas released at the
interface between the spallation target and the proton beam.

ATHLET Nodalization RELAP5 Nodalization

TMDPVOL TMDPVOL
110 230
BRANCH BRANCH
100 220

PIPE PIPE PIPE

90 200 207

1.1 m

J-115 J-125
(J-85) J-195 J-198
BRANCH PIPE
80 120

0.815 m ANNULUS PIPE PIPE

130 190 197

(J-1) (J-2) J-188

BRANCH Di=0.075 m
140 Do=0.164 m
PIPE (J-3)
HTC Correlations 2.355 m 70 0.6 m

Q
PIPE
150
ANNULUS
187

JET MIXER D=0.164 m

160

0.765 m
PUMP
55 PIPE D=0.164 m
PIPE 162
50
TMDPJUN
315 J-45
PIPE J-165
40
TMDPVOL J-35
320

PIPE PIPE
310 30
PIPE D=0.106 m
170

2.57 m
J-305 J-25
PIPE
20
TMDPVOL J-15
300
PIPE
10 PIPE
180
J-185 J-175

1.75 m

5,2 START-UP AND STEADY STATE ANALYSIS 420

5,1
400
5,0
The main goal of Test A is to analyze the attainment of the operational
4,9
conditions using a specific start-up procedure. 380
4,8 Main Vessel ATHLET The pump is kept switched off for the first 100 s to obtain a correct
Temperature [ C]
Liquid level [m]

4,7 Main Vessel RELAP5 pressure distribution in the loop with stagnant fluid condition and then the 360
4,6 Beam tube ATHLET pump speed is changed linearly from 0 to 100% over the next 600 s.
4,5 The LBE flow rate in the secondary side of the HX is increased in a linear 340
Beam tube RELAP5
way during the first 100 s of the transient starting from 0 to 133 kg/s and
4,4 T_out ATHLET
then is maintained constant. 320
4,3 T_out RELAP5
The generated thermal power is released in the target zone through the
4,2 adjacent wall. In particular, it is not delivered in the first 200 s of the 300 T_in ATHLET

4,1 simulation to avoid a too high temperature increase until the mass flow T_in RELAP5

4,0 rate is relatively low. Following this phase, from 200 to 1100 s the thermal 280
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 power is linearly increased up to the value of 1 MW and so maintained. 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Time [s] Time [s]

Liquid level variation in main vessel Inlet and outlet temperature

and beam tube components(Test A ) through the target zone (Test A )

The main goal of the first accidental transient (Test B) is to analyze the
160 behavior of the spallation loop in the event of small flow rate variation 1850
compared to the nominal flow rate. The required flow rate variation is
140 1650
obtained by changing the rotation pump velocity.
120 1450
Mass Flow Rate [kg/s]

Temperature [ C]

100 1250
ACCIDENTAL SCENARIOS
80 1050
T_in ATHLET
60 850
The purpose of Test C is to analyze the behavior of the spallation circuit T_in RELAP5
ATHLET when a sudden failure of the main pump occurs. T_out ATHLET
40 650
The pump rotation is reduced to zero within a few seconds, with the T_out RELAP5
RELAP5
20 consequent reduction of the LBE mass flow rate. The pump is turned off at 450
2000 s with a total coast-down time of 60 s and then is kept off in order to
0 250
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 evaluate changes in temperature of the liquid metal in the circuit, while the
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
Time [s] proton beam is still on, thus inducing heat in the spallation zone. Time [s]

LBE mass flow rate in the primary loop (Test B). Inlet and outlet temperature
through the target zone (Test C )
CONCLUSIONS
A thermal-hydraulic analysis of such spallation loop during operational and accidental transients is carried out using for the first time the new version of the system code ATHLET, in which the physical properties of lead, lead-
bismuth eutectic (LBE) alloy and sodium have been implemented. The obtained results have been compared with the ones achieved using a modified version of the RELAP5/mod 3.3 system code, showing a good agreement during
the simulation of both steady state and accidental scenarios in spite of different HTC correlations.
However, the representation of the spallation area with the target free surface, the free falling jet and the buffer space was not possible in a straightforward manner within both codes and a workaround was arranged using
junctions between different pipe components representing the beam tube and the target area and pressure loss coefficients were adapted. A further step will be to take advantage of the coupling technique already available between
the ATHLET system code and the computational fluid-dynamic code ANSYS-CFX in order to proceed to a very detailed thermal-hydraulic analysis of the whole loop.
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International Workshop on Innovative Nuclear Reactors cooled by Heavy Liquid Metals: Status and Perspectives - Pisa (I), April 17-20, 2012