Applicationoffractionalscalinganalysis(FSA)tolossofcoolantaccidents(LOCA):MethodologydevelopmentOriginalResearchArticle

Aquantitativemethodologyisdevelopedto (a) scaletime-dependentevolutionprocessesinvolvinganaggregateofinteractingmodulesandprocesses(suchasaNPP)and (b) integrateandorganizeinformationanddataofinteresttoNPPdesignandsafetyanalyses. Themethodologyisbasedontwoconcepts:fractionalscalingandhierarchy.Fractionalscalingisusedtoprovideasynthesisofexperimentaldatatogeneratequantitativecriteriaforassessingtheeffectsofvariousdesignandoperatingparametersonthermo-hydraulicprocessesinaNPP.Thesynthesisviafractionalscalingiscarriedoutatthreehierarchicallevels:process,componentandsystem.ThemethodologyisdemonstratedbyapplyingittoaLOCA. Thefractionalscalinganalysis(FSA)identifiesdominantprocesses,ranksthemquantitativelyaccordingtotheirimportanceandprovidestherebyanobjectivebasisforestablishingphenomenaidentificationandrankingtables(PIRT)aswellasabasisforconductinguncertaintyanalyses. ThepaperalsodiscussesthebenefitstoberealizedbyapplyingthemethodologytopresentlyoperatingNPPaswellastofuturedesignofNPP.