A Cross-Platform Multi-physics Reactor Transient Simulations Through a Salome-Backbone Joint Platform

Abstract

To ensure a realistic description of physical phenomena, transient nuclear power plant accident simulations involving multi-physics interactions require a framework to exchange dependent parameters from reactor physics, thermalhydraulics, and fuel codes. SALOME is an open source software that provides a generic platform for Pre- and Post-Processing of numerical simulations. The Backbone, developed at the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, has the capability of synchronizing various codes through a Time Step Controller, which permits appropriate and efficient coupling at the time step level. This paper describes a SALOME-Backbone joint platform for code coupling, with comparisons made to a Large Break Loss of Coolant Accident (LB-LOCA) experiment performed in a five channel per pass configuration at the CNL Whiteshell RD-14M facility.