Nuclear Reactor Power Level Model Predictive Control: A Consideration of Coolant Outlet Temperature Relaxation Tracking Method

Abstract

Nuclear reactor core power level control and the average coolant temperature usually adopt independent control strategies, but tracking only one single core power makes the coolant temperature control risky in a disturbance situation. To solve this problem, a reference trajectory calculation based on the coolant outlet temperature under the steady state of the reactor power is designed; then, a model predictive controller with a dual objective optimization function, which also includes a relaxation factor, is constructed. By setting the tracking weight matrix in the controller, the tendency setting of dual target trajectory tracking can be realized. Simulation experiments verify the effectiveness of core power level control considering the coolant outlet temperature trajectory tracking. Furthermore, the tracking effect of different weight matrices is simulated and analyzed. The results show that the developed control strategy is more flexible than a single control scheme.

Keywords:

• Power level control
• coolant outlet temperature control
• dual objective optimization function
• model predictive control

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (61633016), Excellent Young Talents Fund Program of Higher Education Institutions of Anhui Province (gxyq2019083), Key Project of Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (19510750300, 19500712300), Natural science research of Anhui Higher Education Institution of China (KJ2021A1025) and Programme of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities(111 Project) (D18003).

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.