TRAC-PF1/MOD1: an advanced best-estimate computer program for pressurized water reactor thermal-hydraulic analysis

The Los Alamos National Laboratory is developing the Transient Reactor Analysis Code (TRAC) to provide advanced best-estimate predictions of postulated accidents in light-water reactors. The TRAC-PF1/MOD1 program provides this capability for pressurized water reactors and for many thermal-hydraulic test facilities. The code features either a one- or a three-dimensional treatment of the pressure vessel and its associated internals, a two-fluid nonequilibrium hydrodynamics model with a noncondensable gas field and solute tracking, flow-regime-dependent constitutive equation treatment, optional reflood tracking capability for bottom-flood and falling-film quench fronts, and consistent treatment of entire accident sequences including the generation of consistent initial conditions. The stability-enhancing two-step (SETS) numerical algorithm is used in the one-dimensional hydrodynamics and permits this portion of the fluid dynamics to violate the material Courant condition. This technique permits large time steps and, hence, reduced running time for slow transients.