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Conference Article: Development of subchannel analysis code MATRA-LMR for KALIMER subassembly thermal-hydraulics

Won-Seok Kim; Young-Gyun Kim (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Taejon (Korea, Republic of))

Abstract

In the sodium cooled liquid metal reactors, the design limit are imposed on the maximum temperatures of claddings and fuel pins. Thus an accurate prediction of core coolant/fuel temperature distribution is essential to the LMR core thermal-hydraulic design. The detailed subchannel thermal-hydraulic analysis code MATRA-LMR (Multichannel Analyzer for Steady States and Transients in Rod Arrays for Liquid Metal Reactors) is being developed for KALIMER core design and analysis, based on COBRA-IV-i and MATRA. The major modifications and improvements implemented into MATRA-LMR are as follows: a) nonuniform axial noding capability, b) sodium properties calculation subprogram, c) sodium coolant heat transfer correlations, and d) most recent pressure drop correlations, such as Novendstem, Chiu-Rohsenow-Todreas and Cheng-Todreas. To assess the development status of this code, the benchmark calculations were performed with the ORNL 19 pin rests and EBR-II seven-assembly SLTHEN calculation results. The calculation results of MATRA-LMR for ORNL 19-pin assembly tests and EBR-II 91-pin experiments were compared to the measurements, and to SABRE4 and SLTHEN code calculation results, respectively. In this comparison, the differences are found among the three codes because of the pressure drop and the thermal mixing modellings. Finally, the major technical results of the conceptual design for the KALIMER 98.03 core have been compared with the calculations of MATRA-LMR, SABRE4 and SLTHEN codes.

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key words: benchmarks; c codes; calculation methods; cladding; comparative evaluations; fuel pins; heat transfer; hydraulics; k codes; multi-channel analyzers; pressure drop; sodium cooled reactors; sodium; steady-state conditions; temperature distribution
Reference:
Technical committee meeting on methods and codes for calculations of thermohydraulic parameters for fuel, absorber pins and assemblies of LMFR's with traditional and burner cores. Obninsk (Russian Federation) 27-31 Jul 1998
International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria)
IAEA-TECDOC--1157, pp:206-221