• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.183-194
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• 2014

Recently, a CANDU digital reactivity computer system (CDRCS) to measure the worth of the liquid zone controller in a CANDU-6 was developed and successfully applied to a physics test of refurbished Wolsong Unit 1. In advance of using the CDRCS, its measureable reactivity range should be investigated and confirmed. There are two reasons for this investigation. First, the CANDU-6 has a larger reactor and smaller excore detectors than a general PWR and consequently the measured reactivity is likely to reflect the peripheral power variation only, not the whole core. The second reason is photo neutrons generated from the interaction of the moderator and gamma-rays, which are never considered in a PWR. To evaluate the limitations of the CDRCS, several tens of three-dimensional steady and transient simulations were performed. The simulated detector signals were used to obtain the dynamic reactivity. The difference between the dynamic reactivity and the static worth increases in line with the water level changes. The maximum allowable reactivity was determined to be 1.4 mk in the case of CANDU-6 by confining the difference to less than 1%.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.639-647
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• 2018

In this study, the effects of selecting water/silver nanofluid as both a coolant and a reactivity controller during the first operating cycle of a light water nuclear reactor are investigated. To achieve this, coupled neutronic-thermo-hydraulic analysis is employed to simulate the reactor core. A detailed VVER1000/446 reactor core is modeled in monte carlo code (MCNP), and the model is verified using the porous media approach. Results show that the maximum required level of silver nanoparticles is 1.3 Vol.% at the beginning of the cycle; this value drops to zero at the end of cycle. Due to substitution of water/boric acid with water/Ag nanofluid, reactor operation time at maximum power extends to 357.3 days, and the energy generation increases by about 27.3%. The higher negative coolant temperature coefficient of reactivity in the presence of nanofluid in comparison with the water/boric acid indicates that the reactor is inherently safer. Considering the safety margins in the presence of the nanofluid, minimum departure from nucleate boiling ratio is calculated to be 2.16 (recommendation is 1.75).

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.2048-2054
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• 2022

The coolant temperature feedback coefficient is an important parameter of reactor core power control system. To study the coolant temperature feedback coefficient influence on the core power control system of small PWR, the core power control system is built with the nonlinear model and fuzzy control theory. Then, the uncertainty quantification method of reactor core parameters is established based on the Latin hypercube sampling method and the Bootstrap method. Finally, under the conditions of reactivity step perturbation and coolant inlet temperature step perturbation, uncertainty analysis for two cases is carried out. The result shows that with fuzzy controller and fuzzy PID controller, the uncertainty of the coolant temperature feedback coefficient affects the core power control system, and the maximum uncertainties of core relative power, coolant temperature deviation, fuel temperature deviation and total reactivity are acceptable.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.30-40
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• 1991

For automatic power control of KMRR, a new method, Reactivity Constraint Method, is applied for time optimal control. This method limits the net reactivity to the amount that can be offset by instantaneous control rod action. The reactivity to be constrained for the constant reactor period should be obtained by the dynamic period equation. A new formulation of the dynamic period equation for 2-point kinetics model is presented. A methematical controller model was applied to the plant simulator, KMRSIM to test this control law. The performance test showed that reactivity constraint approach is also a reliable means for reactor power change control.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.98-104
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• 1985

A number of reactivity devices are distributed in a CANDU-PHWR core to control the power distribution and excess reactivity. The effects of these devices are represented by incremental cross sections in core analysis. The incremental cross sections are generated by the SUPERCELL code using the two-group constant set calculated by the lattice code, WIMS. The incremental cross sections are then assessed for adjusters and zone controller by core simulation. Reactivity worth and channel powers are compared to the reference values. The deviation of reactivity worth and the maximum channel power are less than 0.97% and 0.6%, respectively, for the initial and equilibrium core.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.11
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• pp.3685-3693
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• 2021

This paper presents a disturbance observer-based robust backstepping load-following control (DO-RBLFC) scheme for modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (MHTGRs) in the presence of actuator saturation and disturbances. Based on reactor kinetics and temperature reactivity feedback, the mathematical model of the MHTGR is first established. After that, a DO is constructed to estimate the unknown compound disturbances including model uncertainties, external disturbances, and unmeasured states. Besides, the actuator saturation is compensated by employing an auxiliary function in this paper. With the help of the DO, a robust load-following controller is developed via the backstepping technique to improve the load-following performance of the MHTGR subject to disturbances. At last, simulation and comparison results verify that the proposed DO-RBLFC scheme offers higher load-following accuracy, better disturbances rejection capability, and lower control rod speed than a PID controller, a conventional backstepping controller, and a disturbance observer-based adaptive sliding mode controller.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2007.10a
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• pp.231-232
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• 2007

In this paper, a fault diagnosis and control integrated system (FDCIS) was developed to control the thermoelectric (TE) power in the SP-100 space reactor. The objectives of the proposed model predictive control were to minimize both the difference between the predicted TE power and the desired power, and the variation of control drum angle that adjusts the control reactivity. Also, the objectives were subject to maximum and minimum control drum angle and maximum drum angle variation speed. A genetic algorithm was used to optimize the model predictive controller. The model predictive controller was integrated with a fault detection and diagnostics algorithm so that the controller can work properly even under input and output measurement faults. With the presence of faults, the control law was reconfigured using online estimates of the measurements. Simulation results of the proposed controller showed that the TE generator power level controlled by the proposed controller could track the target power level effectively even under measurement faults, satisfying all control constraints.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2007.10c
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• pp.154-156
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• 2007

This paper proposes new control method of maximum power point tracking for the seaflow generation system. This control system is performed by using the duty ratio control of DC/DC converter. An advantage of MPPT(Maximum Power Point Tracking)control method presented in this paper is not necessary to use the seaflow turbine characteristic at various seaflow speed and measure the tidal speed and/or the rotation speed of the seaflow generator. Therefore the resulting system ha s the characteristics of lower cost, higher efficiency and lower complexity. The fuzzy controller is used to control the duty ratio of DC/DC converter. So the reactivity and the reliablilty of the generation system is developed. Proposed control method was analyzed mathematically and tested by computer simulation by using Matlab $Simulink^{(R)}$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.540-544
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• 2001

This paper addresses a hybrid control architecture for the hospital service robot, SmartHelper. In hybrid architecture, the deliberation takes place at planning layer while the reaction is dealt through the parallel execution of operations. Hence, the system presents both a hierarchical and an heterarchical decomposition, being able to show a predictable response while keeping rapid reactivity to the dynamic environment. The deliberative controller accomplishes four functions which are path generation, selection of navigation way, command and monitoring. The reactive controller uses fuzzy and potential field method for robot navigation. Through simulation under a virtual environment IGRIP, the effectiveness of the hybrid architecture is verified.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06b
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• pp.325-329
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• 2001

This paper addresses a control architecture for the hospital service robot, SmartHelper. With a sensing-reasoning-acting paradigm, the deliberation takes place at planning layer while the reaction is dealt through the parallel execution of operations. Hence, the system presents both a hierarchical and an heterarchical decomposition, being able to show a predictable response while keeping rapid reactivity to the dynamic environment. The deliberative controller accomplishes four functions which are path generation, selection of navigation way, command and monitoring. The reactive controller uses fuzzy and potential field method for robot navigation. Through simulation under a virtual environment IGRIP, the effectiveness of the control architecture is verified.