Evaluation of passive autocatalytic recombiners operation efficiency by means of the lumped parameter approach*

• Authors: Tomasz Bury
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The problem of hydrogen behavior in containment buildings of nuclear reactors belongs to thermal-hydraulic area. Taking into account the size of systems under consideration and, first of all, safety issues, such type of analyses cannot be done by means of full-scale experiments. Therefore, mathematical modeling and numerical simulations are widely used for these purposes. A lumped parameter approach based code HEPCAL has been elaborated in the Institute of Thermal Technology of the Silesian University of Technology for simulations of pressurized water reactor containment transient response. The VVER-440/213 and European pressurised water reactor (EPR) reactors containments are the subjects of analysis within the framework of this paper. Simulations have been realized for the loss-of-coolant accident scenarios with emergency core cooling system failure. These scenarios include core overheating and hydrogen generation. Passive autocatalytic recombiners installed for removal of hydrogen has been taken into account. The operational efficiency of the hydrogen removal system has been evaluated by comparing with an actual hydrogen concentration and flammability limit. This limit has been determined for the three-component mixture of air, steam and hydrogen. Some problems related to the lumped parameter approach application have been also identified.

Keywords

EN

hydrogen; lumped parameter modeling; nuclear reactor; passive autocatalytic recombiners

• Publisher: De Gruyter Open
• Journal: Nukleonika
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 60
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 339-345

Dates

published

1 - 6 - 2015

received

12 - 12 - 2014

online

22 - 6 - 2015

accepted

30 - 3 - 2015

Contributors

author

Tomasz Bury

• Institute of Thermal Technology, Division of Heat Transfer and Nuclear Power Engineering, Silesian University of Technology, 22 Konarskiego Str., 44-100 Gliwice, Poland, Tel.: [phone], Fax: [phone]

References

• 1. Sehgal, B. R. (Ed.) (2012). Nuclear safety in light water reactors. Severe accident phenomenology. Elsevier.
• 2. Bury, T. (2005). Analysis of thermal and flow processes within containments of water nuclear reactors during loss-of-coolant accidents. PhD thesis, Institute of Thermal Technology, Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice.
• 3. Fic, A., & Skorek, J. (1993). Mathematical model of transient thermal and flow processes in containment of a PWR nuclear reactor. Archiwum Energetyki, 1/2, 19–32.
• 4. Orszulik, M., Fic, A., Bury, T., & Składzień, J. (2013). A model of hydrogen passive autocatalytic recombiner and its validation via CFD simulations. Arch. Thermodyn., 34(4), 257–266.
• 5. Bury, T. (2002). Influence of the accident localization system construction on the course of the primary circuit rupture accident in VVER 440 units. Zeszyty Naukowe Politechniki Warszawskiej, seria Konferencje, 22(1), 169–176 (in Polish).
• 6. Techy, Z., Lajtha, G., & Taubner, R. (1995). Accident loads for VVER-440/213 containment. Nucl. Eng. Des., 157, 375–385.
• 7. AREVA. (2011). AREVA passive autocatalytic recombiner. Paris: AREVA. (Document G-008-V1PB-2011-ENG).
• 8. International Atomic Energy Agency. (2004). Status of advanced light water reactor designs. IAEA-TECDOC No. 1391. Vienna: IAEA.
• 9. Debontride, B. (2006). Design of EPR. In Proceedings on International Conference on Nuclear Power Plants for Poland, 1–2 June 2006 (pp. 10.1-10.11). Warsaw, Poland.
• 10. AREVA. (2009). Applicability of AREVA NP containment response evaluation methodology to the U.S. EPR™ for large break LOCA analysis. AREVA NP Inc. (Technical Report No. 10299-NP, Revision 1).
• 11. Kostka, P., Techy, Z., & Sienicki, J. (2002). Hydrogen mixing analyses for a VVER containment. In Proceedings of 10th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering, 14–18 April 2002 (paper ICONE10-22206). Arlington, Virginia, USA.
• 12. AREVA. (2006). U.S. EPR severe accident evaluation topical report. AREVA NP Inc. (ANP-10268NP, Revision 0).
• 13. OECD/NEA. (1999). State-of-the-art report on containment thermalhydraulics and hydrogen distribution. Paris: CSNI.

Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/nuka-2015-0042