Development of TSACO and application to Chinese HCCB TBM cooling system

• A thermal-hydraulic analysis code named TSACO-HCCB TBM was developed.
• The code was verified by comparing with RELAP5.
• The design basis accident in-vessel LOCA analysis was performed with this code.
• This article is useful for design and operation of helium cooling system.

In this study, a thermal-hydraulic and safety analysis code (TSACO) for helium cooling system has been developed using Fortran 90 language, and the simulation has been performed for the cooling system of the Chinese helium cooled ceramic breeder test blanket module (CH HCCB TBM). The semi-implicit finite difference technique was adopted for the solution of the dynamic behavior of helium cooling system. Furthermore, a detailed illustration of the numerical solution for heat structures and critical model was presented. The code was verified by the comparison of RELAP5 code with the same initial condition, boundary condition, heat transfer and flow friction models. The TBM inlet/outlet temperatures and pressure drop were obtained and the results simulated by TSACO were shown in good agreement with those by RELAP5. Thereafter, the design basis accident in-vessel loss of coolant accident (LOCA), was investigated for the CH HCCB TBM cooling system. The critical flow model was also verified by comparing with RELAP5 code. The results indicated that the TBM can be cooled down effectively. The vacuum vessel (VV) pressure and the mass of helium spilled into the VV maintained below the design limits with a large margin.