Thermal-hydraulic modeling and transient analysis of pressurized water reactors

This paper examines a new dynamic moving boundary thermal-hydraulic fuel pin model (FUELPIN) for the transient analysis of a pressurized water reactor (PWR). FUELPIN is developed to accommodate the reactor core thermal-hydraulic model of the fuel pin and adjacent coolant flow channel, with detailed thermal conduction in fuel elements. Transient analyses using a known thermal-hydraulic analysis code, COBRA, and FUELPIN linked with a PWR system analysis code show that the thermal margin gains more by a transient MDNBR approach than the traditional quasi-steady methodology for a PWR. The studies of the nuclear reactor system show that moving boundary formulation is highly suitable for the transient thermal-hydraulic analysis of PWRs. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd.