Assessment of RELAP5/MOD3.3 condensation models for the tube bundle condensation in the PCCS of ESBWR

The passive containment condenser system (PCCS) in an ESBWR reactor consists of vertical tube bundle submerged in a large pool of water. The condensation model for the PCCS in a thermalhydraulics code RELAP5/MOD3.3 consists of the default Nusselt model and an alternate condensation model from UCB condensation correlation. An assessment of the PCCS condensation model in RELAP5/MOD3.3 was carried out using experiments conducted on a single tube and tube bundle PCCS tests at Purdue University. The experimental conditions were simulated with the default and the alternate condensation models in the REALP5/MOD3.3 beta version of the code. The default model and the UCB model (alternate model) give quite different results on condensation heat transfer for the PCCS. The default model predicts complete condensation well whereas the UCB model predicts the through flow condensation well. Based on this study it was found that none of the models in REALP5 can predict complete condensation as well as the through flow condensation well.