Reduced Scale Simulations of Boiling Water Reactor Pool Swell: Some Limitations to the Scaling Laws

Several potential sources of misscaling in reduced scale experimental tests have been systematically investigated. Increases in the enthalpy in-flux during pool swell increase resultant uploads; slight boundary flexibility due to small air bubbles attached to the pool walls or true fluid structure interaction can increase peak pool boundary loads; the presence of water vapor in the wetwell airspace can either increase or decrease pool swell uploads, depending on the vapor fraction initially present.