Abstract
The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of radial void fraction distribution, considered at three degrees of fidelity, on lattice k∞ and 2-group homogenized cross sections. The novelty of this work lies in its use of experimentally-determined radial void fraction distributions which allows for fine-scale coolant density data with no predictive uncertainty and which could be prohibitively expensive to simulate over the range of operational parameters used in the experiments. The experimentally-determined radial void fraction distributions are also characterized using a statistical tool called a semi-variogram in order to determine the scale of continuity. Void fraction distributions are averaged at the lattice and subchannel level for comparison with the fine-scale model. Models averaged at the subchannel and lattice level show a difference in k∞ about 68% of the time. Also, by comparing 2-group homogenized cross-sections, the differences between the subchannel and homogeneous cases are measurable.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 107988 |
Journal | Annals of Nuclear Energy |
Volume | 152 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 2021 |
Keywords
- BFBT
- BWR
- Criticality
- Cross-sections
- Neutronics
- Serpent 2
- Void fraction
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Nuclear Energy and Engineering