CFD analyses of the European scaled pool experiment E-SCAPE

•First experiments from the E-SCAPE facility are used for validation of CFD codes.•CFD models of E-SCAPE are developed in STAR-CCM+, ANSYS CFX and OpenFOAM.•The temperatures predicted by the CFD models are in agreement with the experiments.•The CFD models over-predict the local pressure drop due to geometric discrepancies.