Comparison of european computer codes relative to the aerosol behavior in PWR containment buildings during severe core damage accidents

The present study concerns a comparative exercise, performed within the framework of the Commission of the European Communities, of the computer codes used in reactor safety in order to assess their capability of realistically describing the aerosol behavior in PWR reactor containment buildings during severe accidents. The codes included in the present study are the following: AEROSIM-M, AEROSOLS/Bl, CORRAL-2, NAUA Mod5. In AEROSIM-M, AEROSOLS/Bl and NAUA Mod5, the integro-differential equation for the evolution of the particle mass distribution is approximated by a set of coupled first order differential equations. To this end, the particle distribution function is replaced by a number of discrete monodisperse fractions. The CORRAL-2 has an essentially empirical basis (processes not explicitely modelled, but their net effects accounted for). The physical processes taken into account in the codes are shown finally