Study RELAP5 Helium Properties for HTGR Thermal Hydraulic Analysis

Abstract

The system codes non-specific for HTGR such as RELAP5 has been utilized for HTGR thermal hydraulic analysis even helium gas property is not based on KTA 3102.1. However, those RELAP5 applications for HTGR above are merely based on the assumption that RELAP5 helium properties are comparable to the helium properties in the KTA 3102.1. Therefore, the study for comparing the helium properties used in RELAP5 and the helium properties in KTA 3102.1 is required. The objective of this paper is to study the appropriateness' helium properties in RELAP5 code for high temperature gas reactor (HTGR) thermal hydraulic analysis. There has been an inclined interest in the scientific community in the study of the application RELAP5 for HTGR thermal hydraulic analysis. The KTA 3102.1 provides the helium properties that are the most commonly use for the HTGR thermal hydraulic analysis. For this study, the RELAP5 helium properties are compared with the helium properties in KTA 3102.1. The comparison results showed that the RELAP5 helium properties are satisfactory for the HTGR thermal hydraulic analysis.