Adjoint sensitivity analysis of a thermal-hydraulic system undergoing phase change due to boiling transition

Sensitivity analysis of practical problems can be performed systematically and very efficiently by using adjoint functions. In areas of interest to nuclear reactors, this efficiency has been amply demonstrated on several widely used codes for neutronics and/or thermal hydraulic calculations. Applications of the adjoint method of sensitivity analysis to models involving phase transitions, where non-differentiability occurs, do not seem to have been reported to date. The purpose of this paper is to report results from a successful adjoint sensitivity analysis of a space- and time-dependent system where phase transition occurs due to boiling. The specific model chosen for this analysis is a simplified but representative model of a BWR pump-trip-type accident. This model is of particular importance to BWR safety, since pump failure is one of the most limiting hypothetical accidents in BWR's. This model simulates an exponential flow decay of initially subcooled FREON-114 flowing through a heated channel and undergoing boiling transition.