Dynamic modelling, simulation, and control design of a pressurized water-type nuclear power plant

Abstract

This article presents an integrated non-linear dynamic model of a Pressurized Water-type Nuclear Reactor (PWR) and associated plant components for control design and evaluation purposes. The model uses the first-principles approach to represent various components of the plant. The model considers the dynamics of the reactor core, thermal hydraulics, piping and plenum, pressurizer, steam generator, condenser, and turbinegovernor system, in addition to various actuators and sensors. The response of the proposed model is tested using perturbations in different input variables. Various control loops implementing low-level PI control strategies are designed and implemented in the model to simulate the closed-loop behaviour of the plant. These include control loops for reactor power, steam generator pressure, pressurizer pressure and level, and turbine speed. Linear quadratic Gaussian-based optimal control strategies are further developed and implemented. Unique contributions of the work include the set of plant sections that are considered, the implementation of carefully tuned control strategies, the completeness of the model equations, and the availability of parameter values so that the model is readily implementable and has the potential to become a benchmark for control design studies in PWR nuclear power plants.

L₁-Adaptive Robust Control Design for a Pressurized Water-Type Nuclear Power Plant

“…A block diagram of the different interconnecting subsystems of the PWR-type NPP [47] is shown in Fig. 1.…”

“…It is assumed that A m is Hurwitz, and the system (A m , B m ) is controllable and system (A m , C) is observable. The stability, controllability, and observability of the employed nuclear reactor model has been analyzed in [47]. It is assumed that σ(t) and its partial derivatives are bounded and stable and the system input gain is partially known.…”

“…Practically, it is relevant to establish control schemes for the entire NPP system. Nevertheless, a small number of studies are available in the literature to control an entire NPP [24], [42], [46], [47]. On the other hand, many works assumed that all NPP state variables are accessible for control design.…”

Analysis of Transient Interactions between a PWR Nuclear Power Plant and a Faulted Electricity Grid

“…The various subsystems of the integrated model have been considered in depth in [16,[23][24][25]. The integrated model has been analysed and verified with simulated as well as plant data in [26]. In this work, a dynamic shaft model has been further incorporated in the integrated model [27].…”

“…To avoid duplication of published work, the PWR-type nuclear power plant model is presented here in brief. For a detailed description, the readers are advised to refer to [26,28,29]. The values of plant parameters, steady-state values, and their detailed definitions are given in [26,28,29].…”