Analysis of the Phebus FPTO containment thermal hydraulics with the Jericho and Trio-VF codes Original Research Article

This paper presents the analysis of the thermal hydraulic behavior of the containment, during the Phebus FPTO test performed on 2 December 1993, with the Jericho code which deals with the thermal hydraulics of containment in the severe accident field. This code is part of Escadre which is the French system of codes in charge of predicting severe accidents in pressurized-water reactors. After summarizing the relevant Jericho code characteristics and the preliminary assessment work for the Phebus conditions, we briefly describe the REPF 502 test facility and report the thermal hydraulic FPTO experimental protocol. Then, comparisons of the experiment and Jericho calculations are analyzed. Because the Jericho code assumes a well-mixed atmosphere, some additional three-dimensional calculations have been carried out in order to gain further insight into the convection flow patterns and qualify the well-mixed atmosphere assumption in the Phebus containment.