General overview of the TOPFLOW-PTS experimental program

During a hypothetical loss-of-coolant accident, cold emergency core cooling water may be injected in a partially uncovered cold leg, and related two-phase CFD simulations are required to demonstrate the reactor pressure vessel integrity further to the resulting pressurized thermal shock. To complement the physical validation of the two-phase CFD codes in this configuration, a dedicated integral-type experimental program – TOPFLOW-PTS – has been setup; this paper (i) supports the validation data needs, (ii) presents the related experimental setup, and (iii) provides the general guidelines of the test matrix definition and test procedure.