With the goal to enhance the capability to perform best-estimate simulations of Light Water Reactors (LWRs) transients, with strong coupling between core neutronics and plant thermal-hydraulic, a coupling between TRACE and SIMULATE-3K (TS3K) was developed in collaboration between PSI and Studsvik for analyses involving interactions between system and core. In order to verify the coupling scheme and the coupled code capabilities to simulate complex transients, the OECD/NEA Oskarshmn-2 (O-2) Stability benchmark was modeled with the coupled code TS3K. The main goal of this paper is to present TS3K analyses of the Oskarshamn-2 stability event, noting that this constitutes the first reported assessment of this code system for a BWR stability problem. A systematic analysis is carried out using different time-space discretization schemes in order to identify an optimized methodology to simulate correctly the O-2 stability event. In this context, the TS3K results are compared to the available benchmark data both for steady-state and transient conditions. The results show that using a refined model in space and time, the TS3K model can successfully capture the entire behavior of the transient qualitatively, i.e. onset of the instability with growing oscillation amplitudes, as well as quantitatively, i.e. Decay Ratio and resonance frequency. In addition, the results are compared also to those obtained using TRACE/PARCS and S3K stand-alone, which allows a systematic comparison between different codes.

The advanced numerical simulation of a realistic physical system typically involves multi-physics problem. For example, analysis of a LWR core involves the intricate simulation of neutron production and transport, heat transfer throughout the structures of the system and the flowing, possibly two-phase, coolant. Such analysis involves the dynamic coupling of multiple simulation codes, each one devoted to the solving of one of the coupled physics. Multiple temporal coupling methods exist, yet the accuracy of such coupling is generally driven by the least accurate numerical scheme. The goal of this paper is to review in detail the approaches and numerical methods that can be used for the multi-physics temporal coupling, including a comprehensive discussion of the issues associated with the temporal coupling, and define approaches that can be used to perform multi-physics analysis. The paper is not limited to any particular multi-physics process or situation, but is intended to provide a generic description of multi-physics temporal coupling schemes for any development stage of the individual (single-physics) tools and methods. This includes a wide spectrum of situation, where the individual (single-physics) solvers are based on pre-existing computation codes embedded as individual components, or a new development where the temporal coupling can be developed and implemented as a part of code development. The discussed coupling methods are demonstrated in the framework of LWR core analysis.

On February 25, 1999, the Oskarshamn-2 NPP experienced a stability event which culminated in diverging power oscillations. The event was successfully modeled by the TRACE/PARCS coupled system code, and further uncertainty analysis of the event is described in this paper. The results show very good agreement with the plant data, capturing the entire behavior of the transient including the onset of instability, growth of the oscillations, and oscillation frequency. This provides confidence in the prediction of other parameters which are not available from the plant records. The event provides coupled code validation for a challenging BWR stability event, which involves the accurate simulation of neutron kinetics (NK), thermal-hydraulics (TH), and TH/NK coupling. The success of this work has demonstrated the ability of the 3-D coupled systems code TRACE/PARCS to capture the complex behavior of BWR stability events. The problem was released as an international OECD/NEA benchmark, and it is the first benchmark based on measured plant data for a stability event with a DR greater than one.

The unstable behavior of Boiling Water Reactors (BWR), which is known to occur at certain power and flow conditions, could cause SCRAM and decrease the economic performance of the plant. For better prediction of BWR stability and understanding of influential parameters, two TRACE/PARCS models of Ringh-als-1 and Oskarshamn-2 BWRs were employed to perform a sensitivity study. Using the propagation of input errors uncertainty method's results, an attempt has been made to identify the most influential parameters affecting the stability. Furthermore, a methodology using the spearman rank correlation coefficient has been used to identify the most influential parameters on the stability parameters (decay ratio and frequency).

On February 25, 1999, the Oskarshamn-2 NPP experienced a stability event which culminated in diverging power oscillations with a decay ratio of about 1.4. The event was successfully modeled by the TRACE/PARCS coupled system code, and further uncertainty analysis of the event is described in this paper. The results show very good agreement with the plant data, capturing the entire behavior of the transient including the onset of instability, growth of the oscillations (decay ratio) and oscillation frequency. This provides confidence in the prediction of other parameters which are not available from the plant records. This paper shows also how an uncertainty method was implemented for the event. Comparing the calculated uncertainty with the measured uncertainty gives confidence in the BWR stability prediction.

Despite two decades of development and successful use of coupled thermal-hydraulics/neutron-kinetics (TH/NK) codes for the analysis of design basis accidents, the application of coupled codes to BWR stability transients remains a formidable challenge. While the issues in physical models and numerical methods can be identified, quantified and managed through special developments and separate-effect tests, other aspects (e.g. coupling, modelling assumptions) can only be addressed through benchmarking on full plant stability tests. However, often incomplete information causes uncertainties, whose significance on the modelling and simulation must be evaluated. The objective of this paper is to define validation data needs that allow prediction of the transient behaviour should an unstable condition occur. It is shown that the confidence in exploiting advantageous features of the coupled TH/NK system codes in dealing with core-plant interaction, transient effects and local perturbations can only be evaluated with well-characterised, well-documented plant stability tests and stability events.

Unstable behavior of Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs) is known to occur during operation at certain power and flow conditions. Even though BWR instability is not a severe safety concern, it could cause reactor scram and significantly decrease the economic performance of the plant. This paper aims to (a) quantify TRACE/PARCS space–time discretization error for simulation of BWR stability, (b) establish space (nodalization) and time discretization necessary for space–time converged model and (c) show that the space–time converged model gives more reliable results for both stable and unstable reactor. The space–time converged model is obtained when further refinement of numerical discretization parameters (nodalization and time step) has negligible effect on the solution. The study is significant because performing a space–time convergence analysis is a necessary step of qualification of the TRACE/PARCS model, and use of the space–time converged model increases confidence in the prediction of BWR stability.

Unstable behavior of boiling water reactors (BWRs) is known to occur during operation at certain power and flow conditions. This paper reports on an uncertainty study of the impact of various parameters on the prediction of the stability of the BWR within the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Ringhals Unit 1 (Ringhals-1) Stability Benchmark. The time domain code TRACE/PARCS was used in the analysis. The paper is divided into two parts: a sensitivity study on numerical parameters (nodalization, time step, etc.) and an uncertainty analysis of the stability event. The sensitivity study was based on a space-time converged solution, and the most important neutronic and thermal-hydraulic parameters were identified for parameterization. The uncertainty calculation was then performed using the well-established propagation of input errors methodology. Finally, the Spearman Rank method was used to identify the most influential parameters affecting the stability of Ringhals-1.