Engineering judgment and natural circulation calculations

Abstract

The analysis performed to establish the validity of computer code results in the particular field of natural circulation flow stability calculations is presented in the light of usual engineering practice. The effects of discretization and closure correlations are discussed and some hints to avoid undesired mistakes in the evaluations performed are given. Additionally, the results are presented for an experiment relevant to the way in which a (small) number of skilled, nuclear safety analysts and researchers react when facing the solution of a natural circulation problem. These results may be also framed in the concept of Engineering Judgment and are potentially useful for Knowledge Management activities.