Requirements for CFD-Grade Experiments for Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics

NEA/CSNI/R(2020)3
Adobe Acrobat PDF Document - on 2/17/22 at 8:55 AM
- Adobe Acrobat PDF Document on 2/16/22 at 4:33 PM

When looking for a validation experiment for CFD application to reactor simulation for either design or safety studies, it appears that available data often suffer from a lack of local measurements, an insufficient number of measured flow variables, a lack of well-defined initial and boundary conditions, and a lack of information on results uncertainty.

This report first analyses the gap between available data and what can be called CFD-grade experimental data. The objectives of the validation are recalled and put in the context of a best estimate plus uncertainty methodology. It then defines the objectives of a CFD-grade experiment. The scope of this analysis is given with an emphasis on single-phase CFD.

The report then discusses the requirements and gives recommendations for both separate effect tests and combined effect tests concerning boundary and initial conditions, flow parameter measurements, measurement uncertainty of quantities of interest, and boundary and initial conditions in view of minimising the validation uncertainty.