Reactive Control System Research Articles

Non-linear cascade control with gain-scheduling and startup control strategy study for thermionic space reactor TOPAZ-II

The TOPAZ-II thermionic space reactor system, which was designed by the Soviet Union, is characterized by its high degree of nonlinearity and positive temperature reactivity feedback. The thermionic space reactor exhibits characteristics of high inertia and significant delay in controlling its electrical power and outlet temperature. The simple PID controller is difficult to achieve good performance. To carry out controller design for thermionic space reactor, the simulation platform for thermionic space reactor is developed based on coupling between reactor system thermal-hydraulic code RESYS and control system simulator in this study. After that, based on the cascade control strategy and gain-scheduling, the reactor thermal controller, electric power controller, outlet temperature controller applicable for the full power range is designed with transfer function model and frequency domain analysis method. To validate the nonlinear electric power controller performance, the continuous minor step disturbances, major step disturbances, and ramp variation of electric power setpoint is simulated. The performance of outlet temperature controller is verified with the simulation result of step and ramp variation of outlet temperature setpoint. Thereafter, the start-up process of the thermionic space reactor TOPAZ-II is simulated and analyzed. The simulation result reveals that the controller designed in this paper can overcome the nonlinearity of the thermionic space reactor system and has good performance throughout the entire power range. Compared to traditional simple PID controller, the cascade controller has better performance and can achieve good control performance even in situations where simple PID controllers cannot function properly.

Cascade control system design for a space nuclear reactor

Space nuclear reactors with high power density and long operational life are suitable for deep space exploration missions. The design and dynamics of space nuclear reactors are different from those of conventional reactors. Thus, it is necessary to develop a space reactor control system design and validation simulation system to study its dynamic characteristics and control strategy. In this study, a simulation system of the space reactor was established, and steady-state and dynamic calculations were performed to obtain the operating characteristics of the space reactor. Based on the operating characteristics of the space reactor, the control strategy of the space reactor was proposed, and the cascade control strategy of electric power was designed. The control performance was tested under typical operating conditions. The correctness and effectiveness of the control method was verified, and the proposed method provided a reference for space nuclear reactor control studies.

A robust and optimal voltage control strategy for low-voltage grids utilizing group coordination of photovoltaic and energy storage systems via consensus algorithm

This study presents a novel voltage control strategy for low voltage (LV) distribution grids, addressing the lack of coordination between photovoltaic (PV) reactive control and energy storage system (ESS) active control. The proposed strategy concentrates on group coordination of PV and ESS to improve LV grid performance. Initially, it suggests employing PV reactive power for voltage regulation before utilizing ESS active power, relying on the voltage cost sensitivity factor (VCSF) of different regulating devices, to reach efficient PV resource utilization. Devices are categorized by their VCSF, prioritizing groups with larger VCSF for voltage regulation, enhancing overall coordination. In the PV reactive voltage regulation stage, the reactive power utilization rate is the consensus variable, while in the ESS active control stage, the change in state of charge (SOC) is the consensus variable, collectively working towards desired voltage regulation and SOC change. Coordinated control is utilized to converge key node voltages to set values and obtain effective LV grid voltage regulation. An IEEE 14-node LV grid simulation incorporating PV and ESS validates the proposed strategy, demonstrating its effectiveness and correctness in improving voltage control performance. The strategy achieves 70.56% of the capacity and 81.45% of the setup cost compared to similar research, with associated costs limited to 15.80% and 35.0% of accumulated costs.

Research on Voltage Coordinated and Stability Control of Condensers Based on Reactive Power Replacement

Abstract In this research, we investigated condenser voltage coordination and stability control systems by analyzing voltage coordinated control mode among excitation, voltage coordination and stability as well as automatic-voltage reactive power control systems. By using dynamic excitation regulation and steady-state regional voltage source control replacement, dynamic reactive power quickly output under fault condition as well as optimized regional reactive power under steady state were realized. The correctness and practicability of the proposed strategy was verified through engineering application. Adopting the reactive power displacement of voltage coordination control system to solve local voltage instability problem after UHV DC blocking. The proposed method realized multi-time scale emergency, recovery and steady-state control of the system under steady and dynamic states.

Применение принципа Понтрягина для оптимального отключения энергетического ядерного реактора

The theory of optimal control is based on two approaches, the dynamic programming method (Bellman equation) and Pontryagin maximum principle. Pontryagin maximum principle is applied in the physics of nuclear reactors when optimizing various transient processes. The mathematical justification of this theory is based on the elements of convex analysis, which is not used by physicists and engineers, so the physical issues are less studied in scientific literature. The subject of the study is a nuclear power reactor of the WWER type. The problem of minimizing its shutdown time, bypassing the iodine pit is solved and it is possible to start up the reactor at any moment after its shutdown. Analytical and numerical methods are used. The paper considers an example of applying the maximum principle for optimal control of the process of shutting down a nuclear reactor bypassing the iodine pit. A physical mathematical model of the Pontryagin principle is formulated. The process of optimal control of reactor shutdown for large and small reactivity margins is justified and calculated. Pontryagin principle does not contain an algorithm to find an optimization process; the stages of the process must be selected based on physical considerations, but these stages must satisfy the specified principle. Based on the Pontryagin principle, the results of the study make it possible to draw up a step-by-step action plan when shutting down a WWER-type reactor with any value of the reactivity margin and its switching is possible at any time after the transition process, which avoids downtime. The proposed plan can be used both in mathematical modeling of transient processes in a reactor and in reactor control systems to improve its controllability and, consequently, to improve safety.

Design of an automatic electric torrefaction reactor for oil palm empty fruit bunch pellets

Abstract One of the technologies for utilizing waste into high-quality fuel is torrefaction. Torefaction of empty palm fruit bunches is a thermochemical process without the presence of oxygen by heating the biomass slowly and holding it for a certain time. Torrefaction degrades the hemicellulose content to optimize mass and energy yields. The purpose of this study was to design a temperature control system using a electrical heater on a rotary torrefaction reactor for Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch (OPEFB) pellets. The validation temperature sensor has shown a coefficient of determination (R2) 0.9999 using the model coefficient y = 1.0029x + 0.4017. The performance results of the electric reactor control system for torrefaction show a temperature control accuracy of 85.77% at various setting points. The response of the temperature control system within 10 minutes can reach a temperature of 213°C and in the 13th minute it reaches 301.6°C. The stability of the tool produces good performance. The electric power consumption for 6 kg OPEFB pellets was 2.98 kWh at a cost of USD 0.33. The water content in the torrefaction pellets is 1-2%. The results of the hydrophobicity test showed that the torrefactive samples at temperatures above 200 °C did not change their physical form after immersion in water for 24 hours. These results indicate that the electric torrefaction reactor automatic has succeeded in increasing the caloric ratio of the material, resistance to water such as charcoal, but still has the characteristics and properties of biomass.

Wavy-attention network for real-time cyber-attack detection in a small modular pressurized water reactor digital control system

Global interest in advanced reactors has been reignited by recent investments in small modular reactors and micro-reactor design. The use of digital devices is essential for meeting the size and modularity requirements of small modular reactor controls. By fully digitizing the small modular reactor control systems, critical information can be obtained to optimize control, reduce costs, and extend the reactor’s lifetime. However, the potential for cyber-attacks on digital devices leaves digital control systems vulnerable. To address this risk, this study presents a novel wavy-attention network for sensor attack detection in nuclear plants. The wavy-attention network comprises stacks of batch-normalized, dilated, one-dimensional convolution neural networks, and sequential self-attention modules, superior to conventional single-layer networks on sequence classification tasks. To evaluate the proposed wavy-attention network architecture, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Asherah Nuclear Simulator and a false data injection toolbox found in the literature, both implemented in MATLAB/SIMULINK, are utilized. This approach leverages changes in process measurements to identify and classify cyber-attacks on priority signals using the proposed wavy-attention network. Three false data injection attacks are simulated on the simulator’s pressure, temperature, and level sensors to obtain representative process measurements. The wavy-attention network is trained and validated with normal and compromised process variables obtained from the simulator. The performance of the wavy-attention network to discriminate between the reactor states using the test set shows 99% accuracy, as opposed to other baseline models such as vanilla convolution neural networks, long short-term memory networks, and bi-directional long short-term memory networks with 90%, 77%, and 91% accuracy, respectively. An ablation study is also conducted to test the contribution of each component of the proposed architecture. The theoretical framework of the proposed wavy-attention network and its implementation for nuclear reactor digital sensor attack detection are discussed in this paper.

Theoretical and experimental studies of gas preparation system for pressurization and reactive control system of launch vehicle

A new gas preparation system (GasPS-RCS) is proposed to solve two tasks: (A) to heat helium gas for tank pressurization; (B) to prepare gas for the Launch Vehicle (LV) Reactive Control System (RCS) at the LV orientation and stabilization sections of the LV on passive parts of the flight trajectory, to provide conditions for launching the Liquid Rocket Engine (LRE). The system includes a gas generator based on hydrogen peroxide, a separator for water separation, heat exchangers independent of the LRE, and gas-jet nozzles. The proposed new system allowed to reduce the length of pressurizing gas lines and reduce the increased helium gas consumption during the heat exchanger warm-up interval of the LRE during its launch. A special advantage of the proposed system is the possibility of ground testing of heat exchangers without an operating LRE. A mathematical model based on the first law of thermodynamics was used to perform a comparative analysis of GasPS-RCS with traditional pressurization and RCS systems. To validate the mathematical model, the experimental studies of helium pressurizing of a liquid nitrogen tank were conducted. The results show that the deviation of experimental and calculated values for pressure is 1.1% and for temperature up to 2%. According to the results of comparative analysis, the GasPS-RCS is 259 kg lighter for the first stage and 80 kg lighter for the second stage of the LV.

Optimized FOPID controller for nuclear research reactor using enhanced planet optimization algorithm

Nuclear reactor control is pivotal for the safe and efficient operation of nuclear power plants, facilitating the regulation of reactor reactivity. This study introduces an optimized fractional-order proportional-integral-derivative (FOPID) controller tailored for maintaining reactivity levels in nuclear power plants, particularly during load-following operations. The controller adjusts the position of control rod to regulate power output effectively. We enhance FOPID controller's performance using a modification of Planet Optimization Algorithm (POA-M), leveraging the strengths of the Arithmetic Optimization Algorithm (AOA) to improve its exploitation capabilities. We evaluate the efficacy of POA-M-FOPID controller against traditional techniques, including POA, AOA, and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). We assess its performance using the Egyptian Testing Research Reactor (ETRR-2) as a case study. Our results demonstrate that the POA-M-FOPID controller outperforms alternative algorithms across various control metrics, exhibiting superior resilience and efficiency. Notably, the utilization of the POA-M-FOPID controller yields remarkable improvements in reactor power performance, achieving significantly reduced settling time (25.27 sec) and maximum overshoot (0.67 %) compared to conventional FOPID controllers incorporating POA, AOA, and PSO methods. These findings underscore the effectiveness of POA-M-FOPID in enhancing nuclear reactor control systems, offering potential benefits for broader nuclear power industry in terms of safety, stability, and operational efficiency.

Boosted Incremental Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion for Flexible Airplane Gust Load Alleviation

Active gust load alleviation is an important technology for reducing loads on future commercial airplanes so that the structure can be designed to be lighter in order to save fuel. For the intense reduction of gust loads, a highly reactive control system of sensors, control algorithms, and actuators is required, which is not yet available. In this paper, a control algorithm based on incremental nonlinear dynamic inversion is extended so that actuators respond faster. The control algorithm is applied to a future medium-range aircraft with distributed trailing-edge flaps. It is assumed that the vertical acceleration of the center of gravity and the displacement, velocity, and acceleration of the first wing bending mode are available as feedback variables. To allow comparability with other actuator and sensor setups, the authors abstract the actuator dynamics and sensor filter as control system time delay. The feedback gains are adjusted automatically to the control system time delay. In simulation, the authors investigate the influence of the control system time delay on the peak gust loads. They show that gust loads can indeed be intensely reduced with sufficiently small control system time delay in simulation.

Fuel element microreactor integrating a square UO2 fuel rod with an internal heat pipe

In this study we propose the Fuel Element Micro Reactor (FEMR), with 308 square UO2 fuel rods, each one containing inside a heat pipe. We selected Mercury as the working fluid for the heat pipes and operate the microreactor at average temperature around 900 K or 637 °C. Heat pipes introduce empty regions into the core that increase neutron leakage and severely reduce core reactivity. Square fuel lattices allow greater fuel volume fractions and favor increasing core reactivity. The adoption of a 20 cm BeO reflector and Zircaloy as fuel cladding further increases core reactivity. The FEMR core thermal power is 2.3 MW, the power density distribution is rather flat with peaks occurring at the core-reflector interface and the peak fuel temperature is 1160 K. The reactor has a negative temperature isothermal coefficient of reactivity. The reactivity control system with 8 rotational drums and a central cruciform absorber rod meets the criteria of stuck rod and diversity of engineering principles. The average fuel discharge burnup is 8.96 MWd/kgU and the fuel cycle length without refueling is 8.7 years. The ratio between thermal power and total Uranium mass at beginning of life is 2.46 kW/kgU.

Heuristic model predictive control implementation to activate energy flexibility in a fully electric school building

This paper presents a heuristic model predictive control (MPC) methodology to activate energy flexibility in fully electric school buildings in cold climates to reduce electricity demand during peak demand periods of the electric grid. To streamline the implementation of MPC, the proposed approach employs grey-box archetypes, a clustering of weather conditions to identify typical scenarios and a limited number of possible setpoint profiles. A data-driven grey-box approach is used to create archetype models for different thermal zones in a typical school building; this approach enables rapid development and requires much less calibration data than black-box models. A third-order resistance-capacitance thermal network for zones with convective heating and a fourth-order model for zones with radiant floor heating are developed and calibrated using measured data from an all-electric school building in Québec, Canada. The weather data are clustered into several categories, representing different weather conditions (6 clusters representing two ambient temperature ranges and three solar radiation ranges). The heuristic MPC strategy uses predefined optimal setpoint profiles for each cluster and weather prediction one day ahead to shift the building load from on-peak to off-peak hours. For each heuristic MPC scenario, the model runs a simulation using forecast weather data to quantify and activate energy flexibility in response to grid requirements. The developed MPC framework was implemented in the school used as the case study. Ten classrooms are investigated, with six using the MPC and four as a reference case with the reactive control system and default zone setpoint profiles. Results indicate that the school building can provide between 47% and 95% energy flexibility (load shifting relative to reference) during on-peak hours and up to 44% electricity cost reduction while satisfying acceptable temperature constraints. By implementing the proposed MPC, energy flexibility of 32 W/m2 of floor area for the zones with a convective heating system and 65 W/m2 of floor area for the zones with radiant heating can be achieved during a demand response event. The proposed strategy can be generalized and replicated in other school buildings.

USING SELF-POWERED NEUTRON DETECTORS TO MONITOR NEUTRON-MULTIPLYING CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WATER-WATER POWER REACTOR CORE

A method is described for diagnosing the water-water power reactor core components using self-powered neutron detector (SPND) readings. Self-powered neutron detectors are part of the incore instrumentation system. The method monitors both the detector itself and fuel element. The paper’s authors suggest using both steady state and dynamic reactor core conditions for interpretation of SPND readings. Dynamic conditions can be used to determine the coefficients of neutron flux dynamics that are calculated by analogy with determination of reactivity values from output signals of ion chambers in the reactor control and protection system.

Feasibility Study on the Application of Boron Carbide for Long Term Reactivity Control in the LOTUS Small Fast Reactor

Abstract 200 MWth lead-cooled fast reactor (LOTUS) reactor core is a small modular lead-cooled fast reactor with designed power of 200 MWth under development at Vietnam National University (VNU) University of Science, Hanoi for a floating nuclear power plant application. For that purpose, advanced passive safety features and no refueling requirement are the priorities in the core design process. To endure the continuous operation over a long lifetime, the startup core exhibits excess reactivity to cover the reactivity loss due to burnup. The reactivity control system includes burnable poison and absorber rods and layers made of B4C which are employed in the reactor to minimize the excess reactivity of the core to about 1 $ to enhance the safety features of the core. The burnable poison is fixed inside the reactor while absorber rods/absorber layers are withdrawn or inserted in sequence to achieve the required excess reactivity of about 700 pcm. The reactivity control was arranged into ten steps to achieve the operating time of 15 effective full-power years without refueling. Good neutronic behavior of the core was observed with negative fuel temperature coefficient and coolant void reactivity and maximum radial power peaking factor of 1.32. However, a quite large residual absorption caused by fixed burnable poison inside fuel assemblies was revealed. In further study, to increase the neutron absorption efficiency of burnable poison in the fast spectrum as well as the reactor lifetime, a neutron moderator will be considered to add to the burnable poison rods.

Simulation modeling of a synergetic chemical reactor control system

One of the promising ways to solve the problem of synthesizing control systems for nonlinear dynamic objects operating under conditions of exogenous uncertainties is the use of methods based on the synergetic principle of target self-organization for control purposes. The paper examines the problem of synthesizing effective control algorithms for a chemical reactor, which is the main element of petrochemical production, subject to the influence of various uncertain factors, when implementing a series-parallel reaction. The goal of the synthesized control system is to ensure a stable concentration of the target component at the output of the reactor under the influence of uncertain disturbances on the object, as well as to transfer the apparatus from one productivity to another (specified) while maintaining the required quality of the target component.

Supercritical CO2-cooled fast reactor and cold shutdown system for ship propulsion

A neutronics study of a supercritical CO2-cooled fast reactor core for nuclear propulsion has been performed in this work. The thermal power of the reactor core is 30 MWth and a ceramic UO2 fuel can be used to achieve a 20-year lifetime without refueling. In order to make a compact core with inherent safety features, the drum-type reactivity control system and folding-type shutdown system are adopted. In addition, we suggest a cold shutdown system using gadolinium as a spectral shift absorber (SSA) against flooding. Although there is a penalty of U-235 enrichment for the core embedded with the cold shutdown system, it effectively mitigates the increment of reactivity at the flooding of seawater. In this study, the neutronics analyses have been performed by using the continuous energy Monte Carlo Serpent 2 code with the evaluated nuclear data file ENDF/B-VII.1 Library. The supercritical CO2-cooled fast reactor core is characterized in view of important safety parameters such as the reactivity worth of reactivity control systems, fuel temperature coefficient (FTC), coolant temperature coefficient (CTC), and coolant temperature-density coefficient (CTDC). We can say that the suggested core has inherent safety features and enough flexibility for load-following operation.

Determinants of sickness absence in police: Case study of Abu Dhabi police department, UAE

Sickness absence among employees is reported to reduce organization profits and performance and thus threaten the organization's existence in the market. The monitoring and reporting of data on sickness absence is considered a crucial element of reactive health and safety control systems in organizations. It is one of the major indicators of organizational continuous commitment to improving the quality of working conditions. However, sickness absence in Police in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is less investigated. The Occupational Health and Safety Survey developed for this study was distributed to 1317 employees of the Capital Police Directorate of Abu Dhabi Police. The survey was answered by 760 employees (58 %). While 230 (17 %) refused to participate, 259 (20 %) did not return the surveys, and 68 (5 %) were not surveyed as they were on authorized long-term leave for various reasons (and did not receive the survey). This study analyzes if the psychosocial work factors, physical work exposure factors, and employee's perception of the health and safety management system predict sickness absence in the Abu Dhabi Police after taking into account the other covariates. This study found no association between job control and the risk of sickness absence, in contrast to findings from other studies. There was also no association between psychological job demand and the perception of health and safety management with the risk of sickness absence in this study. Officers who fit the ‘job strain’ category did not have a significant increase in the risk of sickness absence in this study. However, high levels of combined physical exposures reported a significant relation with sickness absence. In conclusion, this, being one of the first studies in the region, provides insights on work factors and perception of HSE on sickness absence and provides recommendations within the context of the region for future studies and address sickness absence among police in the UAE.

Research and analysis of the thermal and control characteristics of the plate-type fuel assembly for the supercritical CO2 reactor

Small nuclear reactors can be applied to micro grid power generation, island and space nuclear power systems. The plate-type fuel assembly has a compact design structure, low fuel core temperature, large heat exchange area, and high heat exchange efficiency, which is widely used in small nuclear reactors. To supplement the lack of research in S-CO2 small nuclear reactor, The Brayton cycle reactor system analysis program of S-CO2 plate-type fuel assemblies (BRESA-PFA) is developed, and the reactor control system program is developed to simulate the transient condition in this paper. This article establishes a fuel assembly flow and heat transfer model and a control rod control model using Modelica language, achieving physical and thermal coupling and power control of the reactor. The steady-state operating parameters of the developed program BRESA-PFA were studied, and the flow distribution, coolant and fuel temperature distribution of BRESA-PFA were obtained. The flow distribution conforms to the experimental parameters of CARR, and the fuel assembly radial temperature distribution is high at the center and low at the edge. After verification, the maximum fuel temperature did not exceed the limit value and met the design requirements. Transient characteristic analysis was conducted to study the rod lifting strategy during the startup process, the start-up and rod lifting process of BRESA-PFA is N2-N1-G2-G1, using the logic of step control. Research on reactor control system response under loss of coolant accident, after the accident, the coolant flow suddenly decreased to 65 % of the rated value, and the reactor power also decreased to 65 % FP, G2 and G1 control rods were inserted downwards, the coolant temperature fluctuates by 1 %∼2%. The reactor control system was able to respond quickly, ensuring the stability of coolant temperature, proving the safety and reliability of BRESA-PFA, and providing theoretical reference and scheme support for the research of S-CO2 small nuclear reactors.

Development of an arc extinguishing reactor control system

Subject of research: the system of automatic control of the arc-extinguishing reactor.
 Purpose of research: development of an automatic control system of an arc-extinguishing reactor to improve the efficiency of the electrical network.
 Object of research: 6-35 kV electric networks with compensated neutral through an arc-extinguishing reactor.
 Methods of research: the main provisions of the theory of electrical circuits, mathematical analysis and modeling, numerical programming.
 Main results of research: The article proposes the idea of using the wavelet transform to organize software The article proposes a refined mathematical model of a distribution network with an arc-extinguishing reactor, which allows to increase the accuracy of determining network parameters, including the neutral offset voltage. The algorithm of the reactor settings according to the extreme method in the absence of a single-phase earth fault in a distribution network with a high natural asymmetry.

Evaluation of neutronic performance for the VVER-1000 reactor core with regenerated uranium-plutonium fuel

The possibility has been considered for the VVER-1000 reactor fuel loading to be formed based on regenerated fuel with the use of the spent fuel accumulated in reactors of the same type. A study was undertaken to investigate the change in the isotopic composition of the plutonium discharged from a thermal reactor in the course of its multiple reprocessing and recycle in a thermal neutron reactor. To obtain an equilibrium isotopic composition of the reactor-grade plutonium, 3D neutronic calculations were performed for the stationary fuel cycles of a VVER-1000 serial reactor with conventional oxide fuel and oxide fuel based on regenerated uranium and based on an undivided mixture of uranium and plutonium oxides from SNF. The neutronic performance of reactor cores was compared for the above mentioned fuel types in the course of the fuel company, including the following: in-core radial power density shaping, values of reactivity coefficients for various thermal parameters, reactivity control system efficiency, etc.