Simulation of a Simple RCCS Experiment with RELAP5-3D System Code and Computational Fluid Dynamics Computer Program

Abstract

A small scale experimental facility was designed to study the thermal hydraulic phenomena in the Reactor Cavity Cooling System (RCCS). The facility was scaled down from the full scale RCCS system by applying scaling laws. A set of RELAP5-3D simulations were performed to confirm the scaling calculations, and to refine and optimize the facility's configuration, instrumentation selection, and layout. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) calculations using StarCCM+ were performed in order to study the flow patterns and two-phase water behavior in selected locations of the facility where expected complex flow structure occurs.