Computer simulation of the hydroelastic response of a pressurized water reactor to a sudden depressurization

A computer program is being developed to analyze the response of the core support barrel to a sudden loss of coolant in a pressurized water reactor. This program, SOLA-FLX, combines SOLA-DF, a two-dimensional, two-phase, hydrodynamic code with FLX, a finite-difference code that integrates the Timoshenko equations of elastic shell motion. The programs are coupled so that the shell motion determined by FLX is used as a boundary condition by SOLA. In turn, the pressure determined by SOLA is the forcing term that controls the shell motion. An axisymmetric version was first developed to provide a basis for comparing with a simple set of experiments and to serve as a test case for the more general, unsymmetric version. The unsymmetric version is currently under development. The report describes the hydrodynamic code, the symmetric shell code, the unsymmetric shell code, and the method of coupling. Test problems used to verify the shell codes and coupled codes are also reported. Work is continuing to verify both the symmetric and unsymmetric codes by making comparisons with experimental data and with theoretical test problems