A Bayesian framework of inverse uncertainty quantification with principal component analysis and Kriging for the reliability analysis of passive safety systems

In this work, we propose an Inverse Uncertainty Quantification (IUQ) approach to assigning Probability Density Functions (PDFs) to uncertain input parameters of Thermal-Hydraulic (T-H) models used to assess the reliability of passive safety systems. The approach uses experimental data within a Bayesian framework. The application to a RELAP5-3D model of the PERSEO (In-Pool Energy Removal System for Emergency Operation) facility located at SIET laboratory (Piacenza, Italy) is demonstrated. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is applied for output dimensionality reduction and Kriging meta-modeling is used to emulate the reduced set of RELAP5-3D code outputs. This is done to decrease the computational cost of the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) posterior sampling of the uncertain input parameters, which requires a large number of model simulations.