As a part of the GOTHIC (GOTHIC incorporates technology developed for the electric power industry under the sponsorship of EPRI.) Fukushima Technical Evaluation project (EPRI, 2014a, b, 2015), GOTHIC (EPRI, 2014c) has been benchmarked against test data for pool stratification (EPRI, 2014a, b, Ozdemir and George, 2013). These tests confirmed GOTHIC's ability to simulate pool mixing and stratification under a variety of anticipated suppression pool operating conditions. The multidimensional modeling requires long simulation times for events that may occur over a period of hours or days. For these scenarios a lumped model of the pressure suppression chamber is desirable to maintain reasonable simulation times. However, a lumped model for the pool is not able to predict the effects of pool stratification that can influence the overall containment response. The main objective of this work is on the development of a correlation that can be used to estimate pool mixing and stratification effects in a lumped modeling approach. A simplified lumped GOTHIC model that includes a two zone model for the suppression pool with controlled circulation between the upper and lower zones was constructed. A pump and associated flow connections are included to provide mixing between the upper and lower pool volumes. Using numerically generated data from a multidimensional GOTHIC model for the suppression pool, a correlation was developed for the mixing rate between the upper and lower pool volumes in a two-zone, lumped model. The mixing rate depends on the pool subcooling, the steam injection rate and the injection depth. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
