Development of explicit solution scheme for the MATRA-LMR code and test calculation

The local blockage in a subassembly of a liquid metal reactor is of particular importance because local sodium boiling could occur at the downstream of the blockage and integrity of the fuel clad could be threatened. The explicit solution scheme of MATRA-LMR code is developed to analyze the flow blockage in a subassembly of a liquid metal cooled reactor. In the present study, the capability of the code is extended to the analysis of complete blockage of one or more subchannels. The results of the developed solution scheme shows very good agreement with the results obtained from the implicit scheme for the experiments of flow channel without any blockage. The applicability of the code is also evaluated for two typical experiments in a blocked channel. Through the sensitivity study, it is shown that the explicit scheme of MATRA-LMR predicts the flow and temperature profile after blockage reasonably if the effect of wire is suitably modeled. The simple assumption in wire-forcing function is effective for the un-blocked case or for the case of blockage with lower velocity. A different type of wire-forcing function describing the velocity reduction after blockage or an accurate distributed resistance model is required for more improved predictions