Experimental validation of the thermal-hydraulic code SACATRI

A sub-channel analysis steady state thermal-hydraulic code (SACATRI) was developed for the Moroccan TRIGA MARK II research reactor. The main objective of the thermal-hydraulic study of the whole reactor core is to evaluate the main safety parameters of the reactor core, and to ensure that they are within the safety limits for any operating conditions. The thermal-hydraulic model used in SACATRI is based on four partial differential equations that describe the conservation of mass, energy and momentum. In order to assess the thermal-hydraulic mathematical model of SACATRI, the present paper focuses on the quantification of the physical model accuracy to judge if the code is capable to represent the thermal-hydraulic behaviour of the reactor core with sufficient accuracy. The methodology adopted is based on the comparison between responses from SACATRI computational model and experimentally measured responses performed on the IPR-R1 TRIGA research reactor. The results showed good agreement between SACATRI predictions and the experimental measurements where the discrepancies observed (simulation-experiment) are less than 6%.