Assessment of GOTHIC and TRACE codes against selected PANDA experiments on a Passive Containment Condenser

In general, this study shows that both the GOTHIC and TRACE codes are able to reasonably predict the heat transfer capability of the PCC as well as the influence of non-condensable gas on the system. A slight underestimation of the condenser performance is obtained with both codes. For those tests where the experimental and simulated efficiencies agree better the possibility of compensating errors among different parts of the heat transfer models is outlined. Besides, the pool side heat transfer coefficient is indicated to differ between GOTHIC and TRACE, revealing that the model implemented in TRACE might be more accurate. Finally, both codes deviate more from the experiments for the tests with helium, which is explained by the emerging of a complex circulatory flow pattern in the experiments that the models fail to predict.