Analysis of panthers full-scale heat transfer tests with RELAP5

The RELAP5 code is being assessed on the full-scale Passive Containment Cooling System (PCCS) in the Performance ANalysis and Testing of HEat Removal Systems (PANTHERS) facility at Societa Informazioni Termoidrauliche (SIET) in Italy. PANTHERS is a test facility with fall-size prototype beat exchangers for the PCCS in support of the General Electric's (GE) Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (SBWR) program. PANTHERS tests with a low noncondensable gas concentration and with a high noncondensable gas concentration were analyzed with RELAP5. The results showed that beat transfer rate decreases significantly along the PCCS tubes. In the test case with a higher inlet noncondensable gas fraction, the PCCS removed 35% less heat than in the test case with the lower noncondensable gas fraction. The dominant resistance to the overall heat transfer is the condensation beat transfer resistance inside the tubes. This resistance increased by about 5-fold between the inlet and exit of the tube due to the build up of noncondensable gases along the tube. The RELAP5 calculations also predicted that 4% to 5% of the heat removed to the PCCS pool occurs in the inlet steam piping and PCCS upper and lower headers. These piping needs to be modeled for other tests systems. The full-scale PANTHERS predictions are also compared against 1/400 scale GIRAFFE tests. GIRAFFE has 33% larger heat surface area, but its efficiency is only 15% and 23% higher than PANTHERS for the two cases analyzed This was explained by the high heat transfer resistance inside the tubes near the exit