Development and qualification of a thermal-hydraulic nodalization for modeling station blackout accident in PSB-VVER test facility

Highlights: • A thermal-hydraulic nodalization for PSB-VVER test facility has been developed. • Station blackout accident is modeled with the developed nodalization in MELCOR code. • The developed nodalization is qualified at both steady state and transient levels. • MELCOR predictions are qualitatively and quantitatively in acceptable range. • Fast Fourier Transform Base Method is used to quantify accuracy of code predictions. - Abstract: This paper deals with the development of a qualified thermal-hydraulic nodalization for modeling Station Black-Out (SBO) accident in PSB-VVER Integral Test Facility (ITF). This study has been performed in the framework of a research project, aiming to develop an appropriate accident management support tool for Bushehr nuclear power plant. In this regard, a nodalization has been developed for thermal-hydraulic modeling of the PSB-VVER ITF by MELCOR integrated code. The nodalization is qualitatively and quantitatively qualified at both steady-state and transient levels. The accuracy of the MELCOR predictions is quantified in the transient level using the Fast Fourier Transform Base Method (FFTBM). FFTBM provides an integral representation for quantification of the code accuracy in the frequency domain. It was observed that MELCOR predictions are qualitatively and quantitatively in the acceptable range. In addition, the influence of different nodalizations on MELCOR predictions was evaluated and quantified using FFTBM by developing 8 sensitivity cases with different numbers of control volumes and heat structures in the core region and steam generator U-tubes. The most appropriate case, which provided results with minimum deviations from the experimental data, was then considered as the qualified nodalization for analysis of SBO accident in the PSB-VVER ITF. This qualified nodalization can be used for modeling of VVER-1000 nuclear power plants when performing SBO accident analysis by MELCOR code.