LHGR ESTIMATION FOR IPWR EQUILIBRIUM CORE USING PIN-BY-PIN CODE

HEXPIN

Suhail Ahmad Khan and Umasankari Kannan

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India
email: - suhailak@barc.gov.in

Abstract
A 2700 MWth/900 MWe Indian Pressurized Water Reactor (IPWR) is being designed for
developing indigenous capability to commercial light water technology. A fine mesh pin-by-pin
analysis of equilibrium core of IPWR was performed using HEXPIN code system. The linear
heat generation rate (LHGR) is an important safety parameter which decides the fuel rod
durability during the reactor operation. The LHGR is not allowed to exceed the safety limit for
safe operation. It is important to know the variation of LHGR with the cycle burnup. The LHGR
variation with burnup has been estimated for the equilibrium core of IPWR using HEXPIN code
system. The pin homogenised parametric cross section library generated by lattice burn up code
EXCEL was used to perform this calculation. The present paper gives the detailed results and
analysis of calculation procedure.

1. Introduction
The Indian Pressurized Water Reactor (IPWR) with operating power of 2700 MWTh/900 MWe
is being designed to demonstrate the indigenous capability for designing PWRs [1]. The core
follow up calculations for equilibrium core of IPWR was performed using the fine mesh 3D pin-
by-pin code HEXPIN [2] and parameters like pin peaking factor and local peak factor
distribution was estimated for equilibrium core.
The linear heat generation rate (LHGR) is an important safety parameter which determines the
clad integrity and fuel rod durability for safe and efficient operation of the reactor. The
limitations on the linear heat generation rate (typically called the limit curve) determine the level
of possible values of the local linear heat rate under the conditions of normal or transient
operation. These limits are primarily decided by the thermo-mechanical stress limits of the clad
of the fuel rod. The limit on LHGR for the fuel rods which are seeing third cycle of operation
should not be higher than the fuel rods which are under second operating cycle. Therefore, it is
necessary to calculate and study the variation of LHGR with cycle burnup during rector
operation. This calculation has been performed for the equilibrium core of IPWR using
indigenous 3D pin-by-pin code HEXPIN. The present paper gives the details of calculation
procedure. The brief description of the calculation tools is provided in Section 2. Section 3
presents results of calculations. Section 4 gives concluding remarks.

2. Calculation Tools
The calculations are performed using indigenous EXCEL-HEXPIN code system. The details of
nuclear data used and calculation tools are described below.

2.1 Nuclear Data Library

The present calculations are performed using the high temperature library ‘HTEMPLIB’ [3],
based on JEFF-3.1 nuclear data library. This library has cross section data for 185 nuclides in

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172 energy groups. The burnup chain in HTEMPLIB library has been extended up to 252Cf. The
library has resonance tabulation for 48 nuclides. The resonance integral tables are available up to
a temperature of 2500K. Equivalence relations are used for obtaining resonance self-shielded
cross sections. Mutual shielding of a mixture of resonance nuclides is treated using Stammler’s
method.

2.2 EXCEL Code System

EXCEL is lattice burnup analysis code in hexagonal geometry. The EXCEL code system solves
hexagonal lattice assembly cell by a combination of 1-D multigroup transport and 2-D few group
diffusion theory. The fuel assembly cell consists of a number of heterogeneities like water rod,
control rod or burnable absorber rod (BAR) cells. These heterogeneities are treated by supercell
method in 1D cylindrical geometry using multigroup transport theory. Few group cross sections
of distinct pincell, water or absorber cell types are obtained by weighting and collapsing with
appropriate supercell spectra. The 2-D fuel assembly cell is treated by diffusion theory using few
group homogenized cell cross sections. EXCEL writes the output of few group cross sections of
both assembly cell and the individual fuel and non-fuel cells in the assembly. The former is used
by TRIHEX-FA code and the latter by HEXPIN code. The few group lattice parametric database
is generated for each fuel type considered in KK core as a function of burnup, boron, fuel and
coolant temperatures, coolant density, saturated xenon for different heat rating levels and Sm
loads.

2.3 HEXPIN Code System

The code HEXPIN has been developed for reactor core analysis with a pincell size mesh
description up to pressure vessel in hexagonal geometry [4]. HEXPIN uses the centre mesh finite
difference method to solve 3D diffusion equation in few groups. Currently HEXPIN is
compatible with lattice parametric database of EXCEL code. The pin by pin description of the
whole core is an arduous task. The description of fuel/non-fuel zones of each type of fuel
assembly present in the core is considered by EXCEL code and is written in a file. The HEXPIN
code reads this file for each fuel type.
At core level HEXPIN reads only the input of assembly type distribution in the core. The code
superimposes the local distribution of fuel and non-fuel cells within each assembly with global
assembly type distribution and derives the pin by pin description of entire core. In VVER type
problems, there is a thin inter assembly water gap. In EXCEL code this region is expanded to
half or 1/3rd hexagonal cells by using diluted water cross sections. In the present pin-by-pin
model the two half hexagons of adjoining assemblies coalesce into a single integral hexagon. It
was found that the core size gets expanded when the regular lattice pitch is considered. To avoid
this problem, the lattice pin pitch in HEXPIN simulation is reduced to an equivalent pitch by
preserving the area of each assembly as well as the core area [4]. The core external regions are
alternate ring layers of steel and water up to pressure vessel. The hexagonal cells within a given
radius are automatically identified by the code. Few group homogenized parameters of reflector
is also provided by EXCEL. The 3D few group diffusion equation is solved using centre mesh
finite difference method. HEXPIN calculates typical core parameters like keff, pinwise 3D
power/burnup distribution of the whole core. Critical soluble boron search is possible.
The HEXPIN code has recently been refurbished and rewritten in FORTRAN 90. Some new
models have been added to HEXPIN. This includes the five group perturbation model and a first

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order perturbation method to calculate the reactivity coefficients using pin level cross sections. In
the perturbation method, it is assumed that for small perturbations the direct and adjoint flux of
the reference and perturbed state are nearly same. With this approximation, the reactivity change
due to perturbation of any of the parmeters listed aboved can be determined from the expression:
† 𝑔𝑔 𝑔𝑔 𝑔𝑔 ′ 𝑔𝑔 ′ χg 𝑔𝑔 ′ 𝑔𝑔 ′
∆𝑘𝑘 ∫ 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 ∑𝐺𝐺𝑔𝑔=1 𝜙𝜙𝑔𝑔 �∇. ∆𝐷𝐷 𝑔𝑔 ∇𝜙𝜙0 − ∆𝛴𝛴𝑡𝑡 𝜙𝜙0 + ∑G𝑔𝑔′=1 ∆𝛴𝛴𝑔𝑔 →𝑔𝑔 𝜙𝜙0 + 𝑘𝑘 ∑G𝑔𝑔′=1 ∆ �ν𝛴𝛴𝑓𝑓0 � 𝜙𝜙0 �
0
𝜌𝜌𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝. = = 𝑔𝑔 ′ 𝑔𝑔 ′
𝑘𝑘 †
∫ 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 ∑𝐺𝐺𝑔𝑔=1 𝜙𝜙𝑔𝑔 χg ∑G𝑔𝑔′=1 ν𝛴𝛴𝑓𝑓0 𝜙𝜙0

Here it should be noted that the few group cross sections used in the above expression are pin
homogenised cross sections.

3. Results and Discussion

The detailed pin-by-pin analysis of IPWR equilibrium core had been completed earlier and the
detailed description can be found in [2]. The details of pin homogenised parametric few group
cross section library of the profiled IPWR FA required by HEXPIN and generated by the lattice
burnup code EXCEL are given in [2]. These cross sections are generated for all identified fuel
and non-fuel pin cells of the profiled FA for a set of reactor state parameters.
The core calculation for Cycle 1 is performed using fresh FAs and a pin wise burnup profile is
generated. The core for subsequent cycles is reconstituted using the previous burnup profile and
loading pattern. This calculation is repeated till a converged burnup profile is obtained for the
equilibrium core.
HEXPIN gives the power fraction and burnup values for all axial and radial meshes during the
core follow up calculation. An auxiliary processing program has been written to read and process
the 3D power fractions and burnup outputs obtained from HEXPIN. The 3D pin level meshes of
the core are identified according to burnup cycles seen by them. In order to obtain mesh wise
LHGR, the power fraction of each mesh is multiplied by the nominal LHGR value of 159.6
W/cm. For LHGR protection set point, an engineering factor of 1.16 and an error in calculation
of reactor thermal power of 1.04 are considered over and above the calculated values by
HEXPIN. These factors are derived from previous experience of VVER-1000 MWe reactor
calculation. The mesh burnup and LHGR value, thus, obtained for the mesh is written to separate
files for three cycles. The LHGR values are plotted as a function of burnup for three cycles in
Figs. 1 to 3 respectively. These three figures are combined in Fig. 4. It is seen from these figures
that the maximum value of LHGR values for meshes seen by fuel pins of cycles 1, 2 and 3 (of
410 days each) are less than 375W/cm, 335W/cm and 310W/cm respectively. The maximum
burnup seen by few meshes of cycle 3 is seen below 75MWD/Kg.

4. Conclusion
The 3D pin level mesh wise variation of LHGR with burnup is calculated with HEXPIN for
equilibrium core of IPWR. The LHGR value for each pincell level mesh is sorted by the cycles
seen by them using an auxiliary program. For LHGR protection set point, an engineering factor
of 1.16 and an error in calculation of reactor thermal power of 1.04 are considered over and
above the calculated values by HEXPIN. It is seen from that the maximum value of LHGR
values for meshes seen by fuel pins of cycles 1, 2 and 3 are less than 375W/cm, 335W/cm and
310W/cm respectively. The maximum burnup seen by few meshes of cycle 3 is seen below
75MWD/Kg.

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 Fig. 1 Variation of LHGR with burnup for Fig. 3 Variation of LHGR with burnup for
assemblies of Cycle 1 assemblies of Cycle 3

Fig. 2 Variation of LHGR with burnup for Fig. 4 Variation of LHGR with burnup for
assemblies of Cycle 2 assemblies of three Cycles

5. References
1. IPWR Design Report, Chapter 3 Reactor Physics Design
2. Suhail Ahmad Khan and Umasankari Kannan, “Pin–by–Pin Analysis of IPWR”,
RPDD/IPWR/85/2019, June, 27, 2019
3. Suhail Ahmad Khan, V. Jagannathan , U. Pal., R. Karthikeyan and A. Srivastava, “Need
for High Temperature Nuclear Data Library for LWR Design Computations”, Journal of
the Korean Physical Society, 59 (2), 1073 (2011)
4. Suhail Ahmad Khan and V. Jagannathan, “HEXPIN–A Pin–by–Pin 3D Core Diffusion
Code with Space–Dependent Feedback Model”, Proc. of ARP 2013–Advance in Reactor
Physics: Simulation Techniques and Analysis Methodologies, BARC Training School
Hostel, Anushaktinagar, Mumbai, India, October 23–25, 2013 (2013)
5. W.M. Stacey, ‘Nuclear Reactor Physics’, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA,
Weinheim, 2007

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