• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.8
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• pp.2556-2563
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• 2021

Metaheuristic algorithms can work well in solving or optimizing problems, especially those that require approximation or do not have a good analytical solution. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is one of these algorithms. The response quality of these algorithms depends on the objective function and its regulated parameters. The nonlinear nature of the pressurized light-water nuclear reactor (PWR) dynamics is a significant target for PSO. The two-point kinetics model of this type of reactor is used because of fission products properties. The proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller is intended to control the power level of the PWR at a short-time transient. The absolute error (IAE), integral of square error (ISE), integral of time-absolute error (ITAE), and integral of time-square error (ITSE) objective functions have been used as performance indexes to tune the PID gains with PSO. The optimization results with each of them are evaluated with the number of function evaluations (NFE). All performance indexes achieve good results with differences in the rate of over/under-shoot or convergence rate of the cost function, in the desired time domain.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.229-236
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• 2004

Radiation hardening is a multiscale phenomenon involving various processes over a wide range of time and length. We present a multiscale model for estimating the amount of radiation hardening in pressure vessel steel in the environment of a light water reactor. The model comprises two main parts: molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and a point defect cluster (PDC) model. The MD simulation was used to investigate the primary damage caused by displacement cascades. The PDC model mathematically formulates interactions between point defects and their clusters, which explains the evolution of microstructures. We then used a dislocation barrier model to calculate the hardening due to the PDCs. The key input for this multiscale model is a neutron spectrum at the inner surface of reactor pressure vessel steel of the Younggwang Nuclear Power Plant No.5. A combined calculation from the MD simulation and the PDC model provides a convenient tool for estimating the amount of radiation hardening.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.280-290
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• 1997

The robust controller for the nuclear reactor power control system is designed. The nuclear reactor is modeled by use of the point kinetics equations and the singly lumped energy balance equations, Since the model is not exact, the controller which can make the actual system robust is necessary. The perturbed plant is investigated by employing the uncertainties of the initial power level and the physical properties, and by introducing the delay into the modeled plant The overall system is configured into the two port model and the H$\infty$ controller is designed. In designing the H$\infty$ controller, two factors of the loop shaping and the permissible magnitude of control input are taken into account The designed controller provides the sufficient margins for the robustness, and the transients of the system output power and the control input satisfy their associated requirement.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.7
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• pp.838-848
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• 2015

One of the most important operations in nuclear power plants is load following, in which an imbalance of axial power distribution induces xenon oscillations. These oscillations must be maintained within acceptable limits otherwise the nuclear power plant could become unstable. Therefore, bounded xenon oscillation is considered to be a constraint for the load following operation. In this paper, the design of a sliding mode control (SMC), which is a robust nonlinear controller, is presented.SMCis ameansto control pressurized water nuclear reactor (PWR) power for the load following operation problem in a way that ensures xenon oscillations are kept bounded within acceptable limits. The proposed controller uses constant axial offset (AO) strategy to ensure xenon oscillations remain bounded. The constant AO is a robust state constraint for the load following problem. The reactor core is simulated based on the two-point nuclear reactor model with a three delayed neutron groups. The stability analysis is given by means of the Lyapunov approach, thus the control system is guaranteed to be stable within a large range. The employed method is easy to implement in practical applications and moreover, the SMC exhibits the desired dynamic properties during the entire output-tracking process independent of perturbations. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller in terms of performance, robustness, and stability. Results show that the proposed controller for the load following operation is so effective that the xenon oscillations are kept bounded in the given region.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.9
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• pp.2017-2024
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• 2020

In this study, a fractional order proportional integral derivative (FOPID) controller is designed to create the reference power trajectory and to conquer the uncertainties and external disturbances. A fractional nonlinear model was utilized to describe the nuclear reactor dynamic behaviour considering thermal-hydraulic effects. The controller parameters were tuned using optimization method in Matlab/Simulink. The FOPID controller was simulated using Matlab/Simulink and the controller performance was evaluated for Hard variation of the reference power and compared with that of integer order a proportional integral derivative (IOPID) controller by two models of fractional neutron point kinetic (FNPK) and classical neutron point kinetic (CNPK). Also, the FOPID controller robustness was appraised against the external disturbance and uncertainties. Simulation results showed that the FOPID controller has the faster response of the control attempt signal and the smaller tracking error with respect to the IOPID in tracking the reference power trajectory. In addition, the results demonstrated the ability of FOPID controller in disturbance rejection and exhibited the good robustness of controller against uncertainty.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.243-256
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• 2011

This paper considers the concept of analog computing based on a cellular neural network (CNN) paradigm to simulate nuclear reactor dynamics using a time-dependent second order form of the neutron transport equation. Instead of solving nuclear reactor dynamic equations numerically, which is time-consuming and suffers from such weaknesses as vulnerability to transient phenomena, accumulation of round-off errors and floating-point overflows, use is made of a new method based on a cellular neural network. The state-of-the-art shows the CNN as being an alternative solution to the conventional numerical computation method. Indeed CNN is an analog computing paradigm that performs ultra-fast calculations and provides accurate results. In this study use is made of the CNN model to simulate the space-time response of scalar flux distribution in steady state and transient conditions. The CNN model also is used to simulate step perturbation in the core. The accuracy and capability of the CNN model are examined in 2D Cartesian geometry for two fixed source problems, a mini-BWR assembly, and a TWIGL Seed/Blanket problem. We also use the CNN model concurrently for a typical small PWR assembly to simulate the effect of temperature feedback, poisons, and control rods on the scalar flux distribution.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.299-304
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• 1997

A neuro-fuzzy control algorithm is applied for xenon spatial oscillations in a pressurized water reactor. The consequent and antecedent parameters of the fuzzy rules are tuned by the gradient descent mettled. The reactor model used for computer simulations is a two-point xenon oscillation model. The reactor core is axially divided into two regions and each region has one input and one output and is coupled with the other region. The interaction between the regions of the reactor core is treated by a decoupling scheme. This proposed control of mettled exhibits very fast responses to a step or a ramp change of target axial offset without any residual flux oscillations.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1996.11a
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• pp.79-84
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• 1996

The robust controller for the nuclear reactor power control system is designed. The reactor model is set up by use of the point kinetics equations and the singly lumped energy balance equations. Since the model is different from the actual plant, the controller which makes the system robust is necessary. The perturbation of the actual plant is investigated with respect to several possible sources of uncertainty. Then the overall system is configured into the two port model and the $H_{\infty}$ controller is designed. The loop shaping and the permissible control rod speed are considered as the design constraints. The designed $H_{\infty}$ controller provides the sufficient margins for the robustness, and the system output as well as the control input satisfy their relevant requirements.

• 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.56 no.3
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• pp.772-784
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• 2024

The hexagonal nodal code RENUS has been enhanced to handle irregularly deformed hexagonal assemblies. The underlying RENUS methods involving triangle-based polynomial expansion nodal (T-PEN) and corner point balance (CPB) were extended in a way to use line and surface integrals of polynomials in a deformed hexagonal geometry. The nodal calculation is accelerated by the coarse mesh finite difference (CMFD) formulation extended to unstructured geometry. The accuracy of the unstructured nodal solution was evaluated for a group of 2D SFR core problems in which the assembly corner points are arbitrarily displaced. The RENUS results for the change in nuclear characteristics resulting from fuel deformation were compared with those of the reference McCARD Monte Carlo code. It turned out that the two solutions agree within 18 pcm in reactivity change and 0.46% in assembly power distribution change. These results demonstrate that the proposed unstructured nodal method can accurately model heterogeneous thermal expansion in hexagonal fueled cores.