TRACE Plug-in
The TRAC/RELAP Advanced Computational Engine (TRACE) is the latest in a series of advanced, best-estimate reactor systems codes developed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for analyzing transient and steady-state neutronic-thermal-hydraulic behavior in light water reactors. It is the product of a long term effort to combine the capabilities of the NRC’s four main systems codes (TRAC-P, TRAC-B, RELAP5 and RAMONA) into one modernized computational tool.
The TRACE plug-in for SNAP supports TRACE Version 5.0.
Change Log
Version 2.5.4 - Released 7/2/2010:
- Updated to the TRACE V5.340 TPR specification.
- Updated to the latest version of the TRACE Input Manual.
- A new version option "TRACE V5.0 patch 2" has been added to the list of supported TRACE versions.
- The plug-in has been updated to include support for the new Stand Alone Supplemental Heat Structures available in TRACE V5.340. Stand alone supplemental rods will be exported as a separate heat component with the same axial and radial geometry as the primary heat structure. All of the supplemental rods on a heat structure must be defined as either stand alone or internal. Logic was added to allow the user to convert supplemental rods from internal to stand-alone and vice versa.
- The validation logic that ensures that all components within a model have a unique component number has been updated to include the stand-alone supplemental rods.
- The heat structure signal variable support has been modified to allow selecting sub-components within heat structures and channel components. For heat structures, this includes the stand alone and internal supplemental rods. For channel components, this includes any of the heat structures that will be spawned from the channel, include the canister wall, fuel rods, and water rod heat structures. The exported ASCII model will use the component number for the spawned component.
- The vessel-to-vessel junction component can now be resupplied on restart import. The read logic was updated to allow importing restart decks which modify existing vessel to vessel junction components. (adding/removing junctions, modifying internal junction values). An issue was resolved where the vessel to vessel junction components were being deleted on restart import.
- The drawn vessel junction drawing logic was updated to use colors more closely associated with the connected vessel colors.
- An issue was resolved where tab characters in namelist options would prevent those options from being read.
- The model notebook export logic was updated to included a list of the independent hydraulic systems contained in a TRACE model. The model notebook will list each of the hydraulic system with the following statistics: lowest elevation cell/component, highest elevation cell/component, lowest elevation, highest elevation, and overall elevation change.
- The logic used to monitor model changes while editing a model for restart, was updated to properly flag components as modified in response to changes to control connections.
- The control block input connections dialog was modified to ensure that only control blocks and signal variables may be selected as the input for a control block.
- A TRACE Plot File Merge utility application has been included in this release. TRACE Merge concatenates the plot records of two or more TRACE plot files. The application checks the validity of a set of input files based on the following rules:
- Each input file must be a valid TRACE plot file.
- Each of the plot files must contain identical data channel definitions.
- Each plot file's data must have a start time greater than the start time of the preceding plot file.
If the input file list is valid, TRACE Merge reads plot records from the start of each input file and writes them to the specified output file. This continues for each plot file until either the end of the data has been reached, or the time of the next plot record is greater than or equal to the start time of the next input plot file.
TRACE Merge can be executed via the command line (-h for a list of available commands), or a Graphical User Interface. The GUI for TRACE Merge contains controls for adding, removing, and modifying the order of input files. The GUI also checks the validity of the input file list, and if it is invalid, will disable the button used to concatenate the plot files. The GUI also contains controls for specifying the name and location of the output file to be generated, as well as an estimate of the size of the output file.