Application of the SALOME Platform to the Loose Coupling of the CATHENA and ELOCA Codes

Abstract

Use of coupled codes for the safety analysis of nuclear power plants is highly desirable, as it permits multi-disciplinary studies of complex reactor behaviors and, in particular, accident simulations.The present work demonstrates the potential of the SALOME platform as an interface for creating integrated, multi-disciplinary simulations of reactor scenarios. For this purpose two codes currently in use within the Canadian nuclear industry, CATHENA and ELOCA, were coupled by means of SALOME. The coupled codes were used to model the Power Burst Facility (PBF)-CANDU Test, which was to test the thermal-mechanical behavior of PHWR (pressurized heavy water reactor) fuel during a simulated Large Loss-Of-Coolant Accident (LLOCA). The results of the SALOME-coupled simulations are compared with a previous analysis in which the two codes were coupled using a package of scripts.