Simulations of flashing experiments in TOPFLOW facility with TRACE code

Highlights: • Two decompression experiments performed at TOPFLOW are simulated with a TRACE code. • The depressurization triggers flashing of the slightly undersaturated liquid water. • Pressure, temperature and void fractions are compared with measurements. • Prediction of the choked flow is the most critical parameter of simulations. • Good agreement with measurements at high initial pressure (i.e. 65 and 40 bars). - Abstract: The decompression experiments performed at TOPFLOW facility in 2010 have been reproduced using the latest best-estimate thermohydraulic system code TRACE (V 5.0 Patch 3). The main component of TOPFLOW facility was about 8 m long vertical tube with an inner diameter of 195.3 mm. The evaporation of liquid water to steam caused by depressurization was simulated using two different procedures: from stagnant water and during circulating of water in tubes. The liquid water was almost saturated at initial pressure values of 1.0, 2.0, 4.0 and 6.5 MPa. Our approach applies one-dimensional code to simulate all the important parts of the facility not just the vertical test section, where the measurements were taken. The obtained simulated pressure, temperature and void fractions are compared with measured values. The simulations of the first procedure (stagnant water at beginning) are in a good agreement with measurements, especially for the cases with longer transients and higher initial pressure, however, choked flow model through the blow-off valve had to be adjusted. There is a short transient (about 2 s) after the fast opening valve opens, which was not reproduced correctly with TRACE. The simulations of the second procedure (circulating water in a loop) correctly predict pressure and temperature decrease, but underpredict void fraction. No modification of the default TRACE choked flow model was needed for procedure B