Abstract
The radiation shadow shield of the space nuclear power is an important component to protect the electronic device at the dose plane. In this paper, design of the radiation shadow shield is first modeled as a multi-objective optimization problem, and then converted into a single objective optimization problem by setting the other sub-objectives as constraints. An optimization method combining a single objective genetic algorithm with Monte Carlo simulation is developed to solve the optimization problem of shadow shield design. Through optimization, weight of the radiation shadow shield can be greatly reduced (14.7% of the weight of the initial design and 16.4% of the weight of the best individual of the first generation), while radiation dose at the dose plane is lower than the acceptable tolerance. The optimization method developed in this work is an automated optimization strategy by searching for the parameter space, which will not be subject to human preferences. The global optimal solutions can be obtained without the tedium of human manual work.
Highlights
Deep space exploration and immense developments in space science and technology demand reliable, long life, and high-power energy sources
As to shadow shield design of space reactors, the purpose is to obtain the optimal parameters with the minimum weight while the neutron and gamma radiation are at the dose plane lower than the tolerable limits, so the multiobjective optimization problem stated by Equation 1 can be converted into a single-objective optimization problem, given as: min fW x fg fn x x
The multi-objective optimization problem of designing the shadow shield is converted into a single-objective optimization problem by setting the sub-objectives as constraints
Summary
Deep space exploration and immense developments in space science and technology demand reliable, long life, and high-power energy sources. The shadow shield is designed to protect the electronic system of the spacecraft from neutron and gamma radiation generated by the reactor core. Hydrogen contained materials such as LiH and ZrH2 are usually chosen to slow down neutrons and heavy materials such as steel, lead, and tungsten are chosen to attenuate gamma rays. Tungsten doping with boron cardide (W-B4C) is used in shadow shield of space nuclear reactor, to attenuate gamma rays as well as to absorb neutrons (Ahmad et al, 2021). The radiation shadow shield is a considerable part of the total mass of the space nuclear reactor. The total mass of the space nuclear reactor is closely related to the launching cost
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