Shoujun Yan

Application of an Improved Mechanical Shim Control Strategy for AP1000 Reactor

Abstract This paper presents the performance evaluation of an improved mechanical shim (MSHIM) control strategy that is implemented in the AP1000 reactor by a digital rod control system. The MSHIM control system automatically controls the core reactivity and axial power distribution using gray and black M control banks (M-banks) and an axial offset (AO) control bank (AO-bank). The M-banks and AO-bank are independently controlled by the power control subsystem and the AO control subsystem. In the original MSHIM strategy, the power control subsystem takes precedence, and the AO-bank is blocked from moving when a demand signal exists for the movement of the M-banks. This rod control logic can minimize the potential for interactions between the two rod control subsystems and guarantee the safety and stability of the MSHIM control system. However, the AO control capability is weakened at the same time. Thus, Westinghouse has improved this core control strategy, which gives preference to the AO-bank when both the AO-bank and the M-banks have a demand to move in the same direction. In this paper, first, the coupling characteristic of the MSHIM control strategy is analyzed to illustrate the coupling effect between the two rod control subsystems. Then, both the original and the improved MSHIM control strategies are applied to AP1000. It has been demonstrated by the MSHIM load-follow and load regulation simulation results that the improved strategy not only can provide much tighter AO control but also can reduce the total control rod movement without compromising the coolant average temperature control. Therefore, the improved MSHIM strategy can provide much better reactor control capabilities than the original strategy.

Development of a Fast Simulation Program for AP1000 Reactor With Application of Mechanical Shim (MSHIM) Control Strategy and Nodal Method

The Mechanical Shim (MSHIM) core control strategy makes use of two independently controlled rod groups to provide fine control of both core reactivity and axial power distribution. This paper presents a reactor core fast simulation program (RCFSP) for AP1000 using MATLAB/SIMULINK. A nodal core model including xenon iodine dynamics is used to describe the core thermal power transient with the two group neutron diffusion equation for neutron kinetics modeling and an integral method for thermal-hydraulic calculation. Two closed loop rod controllers with implementation of the MSHIM core control strategy are developed to modulate the insertion of control rods. Based on the developed RCFSP, the MSHIM load follow operations with the original and revised MSHIM control strategies and two typical MSHIM load regulation operations with ten-percent step load change and five-percent per minute ramp load change are simulated. Results of these MSHIM operations demonstrate that the core reactivity and axial power distribution can be well-controlled via automatic rod control only. It has also been demonstrated that the MSHIM capabilities provided by the original MSHIM strategy are not diminished by the revised one. Moreover, the M-bank insertion for the original strategy is much deeper than that for the revised one. Thus, the power distribution perturbations associate with the M-bank movement for the revised strategy are not as pronounced as those for the original one during load change transients, which helps to alleviated peaking factor concerns associated with the control rod insertion. In view of its accuracy, simplicity and fast computation speed, the developed RCFSP can be used for dynamic simulations and control studies of the AP1000 reactor with application of MSHIM control strategy. With the adoption of modular programming techniques, the RCFSP code can be easily modified and applied to other pressurized water nuclear reactors that employs separate, independent control rod banks for respectively controlling core reactivity and axial offset within corresponding deadbands.© 2014 ASME

Modeling and Control Strategy of the China LBE Cooled Fast Reactor

China lead bismuth eutectic (LBE) cooled fast reactor comprises of the primary system with lead bismuth eutectic (LBE) as the coolant, the secondary circuit with sub-cooled water as the coolant and the associated air cooling system for an effective rejection of thermal power to the environment as a final heat sink. The dynamic characteristics of LBE cooled fast reactor are different from the traditional Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs) because of the variances in coolant properties as well as major differences due to the operation in the fast versus the thermal neutron spectrum. To investigate the dynamic characteristics of the CLEAR-IA reactor for control system design and simulation, a model for the main components of the reactor and the most relevant interactions among them is developed. Since all the coefficients in the models are functions of temperature, the models in this paper are not described by ordinary differential equation. These models are realized by using the S-function builder of SIMULINK. The steady state calculation result based on the thermal-hydraulic models show agreement with the design value. To show the proposed models could be used for the simulation, the transient process of parameter change is compared with Relap5 simulation code, which shows agreement. A Proportional-Integral (PI) controller is designed to keep the power following the set value as quickly as possible. To keep the inlet temperature of core coolant constant, a control strategy based on a simultaneous feed-forward and feedback scheme has been adopted. The feed-back control system is a PI controller and it can achieve a real time and no error control, but it has time delay. The feed-forward control can realize the control in advance before the LBE temperature at inlet of the core has been changed to reduce the overshoot. So the feed-forward can realize an advance and rough control, the feedback can realize a no error and accurate control. Based on the developed model and control strategy, dynamic simulations of the whole system in case of step changes of reactivity and set power are performed. The simulation results show that the proposed model is accurate enough to describe the dynamic behaviors of the plant in spite of its simplicity. It has also been demonstrated that the developed controllers for the CLEAR-IA can provide superior reactor control due to the efficiency of the control strategy adopted.Copyright

Helical Pitch Optimization of Double-Tube Once-Through Steam Generator

Once-Through Steam Generator (OTSG) is widely used in nuclear reactor system due to its advantages of compactness. The heat transfer performance of DOTSG is studied in this paper. In order to minimize the DOTSG volume and reduce the pressure drop of coolant, the pitch of inner helical tube is optimized with Pontryagin Maximum Principle (PMP). The double-tube is divided to three regions according to the coolant phase in secondary side. With given heat transfer load, choosing a combination function of minimum tube length and minimum pressure drop constructed with linear weighted method as objective function, the pitch optimization proceeds from superheated region to boiling region, and then to sub-cooled region in sequence, using Maximum Principle and gradient method. Then the pitch and temperature distribution along the axis is obtained respectively. The results show that the optimal pitch keeps constant along the axial direction in sub-cooled region and superheated region, but varies in boiling region. In boiling region, compared with minimum tube length optimization, the optimal tube length is 6.4% longer while the pressure drop is 36.3% smaller; and compared with minimum pressure drop optimization, the optimal pressure drop is 29.1% larger while the optimal tube length is 4.6% smaller. With the optimal pitch, the temperature distribution is in agreement with the general physic rules, which proves the correctness and the feasibility of the Maximum Principle method used for the structural optimization of DOTSG in this paper.Copyright