Blowdown heat transfer surface in RELAP4/MOD6 and data comparisons. [PWR]

RELAP4 is a thermal hydraulic analysis tool written to analyze transients in light water reactors (LWR). To date, most of the applications for RELAP4 have been to analyze postulated LOCA transients in LWR and the response of experimental systems to loss-of-coolant experiments. An important part of these analyses is the prediction of the fuel rod or heater surface temperature which involves the calculation of surface heat transfer coefficients. The paper describes the outcome of a significant blowdown heat transfer development effort which is incorporated in RELAP4/MOD6 (the current version of the code available to the United States public from the Argonne Code Center). The primary emphasis in the MOD6 development was on a PWR reflood capability. The best-estimate blowdown heat transfer correlation and logic were added to provide improved blowdown predictive capability.