Development of a general coupling interface for the fuel performance code TRANSURANUS – Tested with the reactor dynamics code DYN3D

Abstract A general interface is presented for coupling the TRANSURANUS fuel performance code with thermal hydraulics system, sub-channel thermal hydraulics, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) or reactor dynamics codes. As first application the reactor dynamics code DYN3D was coupled at assembly level in order to describe the fuel behavior in more detail. In the coupling, DYN3D provides process time, time-dependent rod power and thermal hydraulics conditions to TRANSURANUS, which in case of the two-way coupling approach transfers parameters like fuel temperature and cladding temperature back to DYN3D. Results of the coupled code system are presented for the reactivity transient scenario, initiated by control rod ejection. More precisely, the two-way coupling approach systematically calculates higher maximum values for the node fuel enthalpy. These differences can be explained thanks to the greater detail in fuel behavior modeling. The numerical performance for DYN3D–TRANSURANUS was proved to be fast and stable. The coupled code system can therefore improve the assessment of safety criteria, at a reasonable computational cost.