Assessment of ECCMIX component in RELAP5 based on ECCS experiment

ECCMIX component was introduced in RELAP5/MOD3 for calculating the interfacial condensation. Compared to other existing components in RELAP5, user experience of ECCMIX component is restricted to developmental assessment applications. To evaluate the capability of the ECCMIX component, ECCS experiment was conducted which included single-phase and two-phase thermal mixing. The experiment was carried out with test sections containing a main pipe (70 mm inner diameter) and a branch pipe (21 mm inner diameter) under the atmospheric pressure. The steam mass flow in the main pipe ranged from 0 to 0.0347 kg/s, and the subcooled water mass flow in the branch pipe ranged from 0.0278 to 0.1389 kg/s. The comparison of the experimental data with the calculation results illuminated that although the ECCMIX component was more difficult to converge than Branch component, it was a more appropriate manner to simulate interfacial condensation under two-phase thermal mixing circumstance, while the two components had no differences under single-phase circumstance.