Parameter Sensitivity Study of Boiling and Two-Phase Flow Models in Computational Thermalhydraulics

Abstract

This work presents a sensitivity study of boiling and two phase flow models for thermal hydraulics simulations in nuclear reactors. The study quantifies sources of uncertainty and error in these simulations by computing global sensitivities of figures of merit, or outputs, to model parameters, inputs, and mesh resolution. Results are obtained for the DEBORA benchmark problem of boiling in a channel driven by a heated wall section. Scalar outputs of interest are average wall temperature, integrated cross-sectional void fraction, and pressure drop in the channel. Sensitivities are computed with respect to both individual heat fluxes and to the parameters in the models for these heat fluxes.