SACOS-PLATE: A new thermal-hydraulic subchannel analysis code for plate type fuel assemblies

Over the past few decades, plate-type fuel elements have been widely used in advanced research reactors, small modular pressurized water reactors, production reactors, etc., with the advantages of compact structure arrangement, good heat transfer characteristics and high fuel consumption. Currently, a thermal–hydraulic subchannel analysis code, namely SACOS-PLATE code, was newly designed to satisfy the calculation of different types of plate fuel elements under various steady-state operating conditions. Based on the original SACOS code, this updated version modifies the flow distribution model, the plate heat conduction model, the heat distribution model as well as the flow heat transfer model, and then realizes the simulation of the special thermal–hydraulic phenomena of the fuel plate and the rectangular flow channel. In this present study, the RA-6 and Bettis experimental data was used to validate the code, and the simulation calculation was performed on the JRR-3 research reactor, which effectively proved the good computing capability of SACOS-PLATE code.