Transient phenomena and structural instability in a piping system of a PWR reactor

This paper presents a formulation which treats different aspects of the phenomenon of fluid transients in a common tubular circuit. The results and predictions given by these models are obtained by the developed code TRANS (transient analysis in nuclear reactors). This paper studies the transient waves with basis on the classical plane wave theory. The partial differential equations ruling the problem are solved by the general characteristics' technique using the method of finite differences. The piping system's response concerning probable structural instability due to flow intensity is also analyzed in the event of a sudden depressurization. Agreement between theoretical and experimental pressure-time, pressure amplitudes and phases profiles diagrams is sufficient to validate a model