• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.226-233
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• 2022

In the present work, a phase-field model was developed to investigate the influence of recrystallization on bubble evolution during irradiation. Considering the interaction between bubbles and grain boundary (GB), a set of modified Cahn-Hilliard and Allen-Cahn equations, with field variables and order parameters evolving in space and time, was used in this model. Both the kinetics of recrystallization characterized in experiments and point defects generated during cascade were incorporated in the model. The bubble evolution in recrystallized polycrystalline of U-Mo alloy was also investigated. The simulation results showed that GB with a large area fraction generated by recrystallization accelerates the formation and growth of bubbles. With the formation of new grains, gas atoms are swept and collected by GBs. The simulation results of bubble size and distribution are consistent with the experimental results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.399-411
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• 2003

A model predictive control method is applied to design an automatic controller for thermal power control in a reactor core. The basic concept of the model predictive control is to solve an optimization problem for a finite future at current time and to implement as the current control input only the first optimal control input among the solutions of the finite time steps. At the next time step, the second optimal control input is not implemented and the procedure to solve the optimization problem is then repeated. The objectives of the proposed model predictive controller are to minimize the difference between the output and the desired output and the variation of the control rod position. The nonlinear PWR plant model (a nonlinear point kinetics equation with six delayed neutron groups and the lumped thermal-hydraulic balance equations) is used to verify the proposed controller of reactor power. And a controller design model used for designing the model predictive controller is obtained by applying a parameter estimation algorithm at an initial stage. From results of numerical simulation to check the controllability of the proposed controller at the $5\%/min$ ramp increase or decrease of a desired load and its $10\%$ step increase or decrease which are design requirements, the performances of this controller are proved to be excellent.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.455-465
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• 2021

The Molten Salt Reactor (MSR), one of the six advanced reactor types of the 4th generation nuclear energy systems, has many impressive features including economic advantages, inherent safety and nuclear non-proliferation. This paper introduces a system analysis code named TREND, which is developed and used for the steady and transient simulation of MSRs. The TREND code calculates the distributions of pressure, velocity and temperature of single-phase flows by solving the conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy, along with a fluid state equation. Heat structures coupled with the fluid dynamics model is sufficient to meet the demands of modeling MSR system-level thermal-hydraulics. The core power is based on the point reactor neutron kinetics model calculated by the typical Runge-Kutta method. An incremental PID controller is inserted to adjust the operation behaviors. The verification and validation of the TREND code have been carried out in two aspects: detailed code-to-code comparison with established thermal-hydraulic system codes such as RELAP5, and validation with the experimental data from MSRE and the CIET facility (the University of California, Berkeley's Compact Integral Effects Test facility).The results indicate that TREND can be used in analyzing the transient behaviors of MSRs and will be improved by validating with more experimental results with the support of SINAP.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.536-547
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• 1994

The state feedback optimal control techniques are used in designing the reactor control system. The mathematical plant model with the temperature feedback effects is established from the one delayed neutron group point kinetics equation and the singly lumped thermal-hydraulic balance equations, and is expressed in terms of state variables. The LQR (Linear Quadratic Regulator) control system is designed, being followed by the LQG (Linear Quadratic Gaussian) design to determine the optimal conditions of rod movement for the desired reactor power responses. And two different servo control schemes, the ordinary feedback system and the order increased regulating system, are proposed for the purpose of input tacking. The general control characteristics such as stability margins and output responses are discussed. Comparing each other, it is found that the order increased regulating system has far better control characteristics than the ordinary feedback system.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.198-204
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• 1987

A plant simulation code, MCSIM (Micro-Computer SIMulator), has been developed to simulate plant transient accidents for pressurized water reactors. Reactor coolant system is modeled using decoupled energy and momentum equations, drift flux two-phase flow model and integral momentum equation. A two-fluid pressurizer model is used to simulate the pressurizer dynamics. Pot Boiler model is used for steam generator, steady-state decoupled energy and momentum equations for secondary side system, and point kinetics equations for nuclear power calculation. For test of the present version of MCSIM, complete loss of flow and RCCA withdrawal accidents are calculated with MCSIM. The results are compared with those in FSAR of KNU 5 & 6.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.7
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• pp.1443-1451
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• 2020

The objective of this study is to design a robust power control system for a small pressurized water reactor (PWR) to achieve stable power operations under conditions of external disturbances and internal model uncertainties. For this purpose, the multiple-input multiple-output transfer function models of the reactor core at five power levels are derived from point reactor kinetics equations and the Mann's thermodynamic model. Using the transfer function models, five local reactor power controllers are designed using an H infinity (H_∞) mixed sensitivity method to minimize the core power disturbance under various uncertainties at the five power levels, respectively. Then a multimodel approach with triangular membership functions is employed to integrate the five local controllers into a multimodel robust control system that is applicable for the entire power range. The performance of the robust power system is assessed against 10% of full power (FP) step load increase transients with coolant inlet temperature disturbances at different power levels and large-scope, rapid ramp load change transient. The simulation results show that the robust control system could maintain satisfactory control performance and good robustness of the reactor under external disturbances and internal model uncertainties, demonstrating the effective of the robust power control design.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.1644-1651
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• 2022

This paper focuses on the power-level control of nuclear power plants (NPPs) in the presence of lumped disturbances. An adaptive second-order nonsingular terminal sliding mode control (ASONTSMC) scheme is proposed by resorting to the second-order nonsingular terminal sliding mode. The pre-existing mathematical model of the nuclear reactor system is firstly described based on point-reactor kinetics equations with six delayed neutron groups. Then, a second-order sliding mode control approach is proposed by integrating a proportional-derivative sliding mode (PDSM) manifold with a nonsingular terminal sliding mode (NTSM) manifold. An adaptive mechanism is designed to estimate the unknown upper bound of a lumped uncertain term that is composed of lumped disturbances and system states real-timely. The estimated values are then added to the controller, resulting in the control system capable of compensating the adverse effects of the lumped disturbances efficiently. Since the sign function is contained in the first time derivative of the real control law, the continuous input signal is obtained after integration so that the chattering effects of the conventional sliding mode control are suppressed. The robust stability of the overall control system is demonstrated through Lyapunov stability theory. Finally, the proposed control scheme is validated through simulations and comparisons with a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller, a super twisting sliding mode controller (STSMC), and a disturbance observer-based adaptive sliding mode controller (DO-ASMC).

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.192-197
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• 1987

Two-point kinetic equations for a compact-core-with-bulky-D$_2$O-reflector system were developed. A unique feature of the system is that certain fission gammas create retarded photoneutrons in the D$_2$O reflector by (ｒ, n) reaction. Coupling effect between the core and the reflector was investigated by simulating power transients with various ramp reactivity insertions. Special attention was paid to the phenomenon associated with spatial separation of photoneutrons and their precursors. Simulations show that accuracy of the two-point model is comparable with that of space-dependent approach. Also it is found that the explicily expressed photoneutron terms in the reflector equation slow down the power transient compared to non-photoneutron expressions. Detectors for reactor power control purpose prefer to be deployed in the core zone to be able to accurately perdict transient power.