• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.101-109
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• 2002

It is a very difficult to control the S/G(Steam Generator) levels for not only automatic operation mode but also manual operation made by operators in case of start up or low power plants. The object of this study is to develop and applicate a DCS(Digital Control System) that process the reliable control algorithm in order to control S/G levels automatically from a start-up to full power operation mode for nuclear power plants.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.163-169
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• 2019

The robust controller synthesis and analysis of the water level process in the U-tube system generator (UTSG) is addressed in this paper. The parameter uncertainties of the steam generator (SG) are modeled as multiplicative perturbations which are normalized by designing suitable weighting functions. The relative errors of the nominal SG model with respect to the other operating power level models are employed to specify the weighting functions for normalizing the plant uncertainties. Then, a robust controller is designed based on ${\mu}$-synthesis and D-K iteration, and its stability robustness is verified over the whole range of power operations. A gain-scheduled controller with $H_{\infty}$-synthesis is also designed to compare its robustness with the proposed controller. The stability analysis is accomplished and compared with the previous QFT design. The ${\mu}$-analysis of the system shows that the proposed controller has a favorable stability robustness for the whole range of operating power conditions. The proposed controller response is simulated against the power level deviation in start-up and shutdown stages and compared with the other concerning controllers.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.11
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• pp.3643-3652
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• 2021

Sizing the tube inlet orifice of a Once-Through Steam Generator (OTSG) is important to protect the integrity of the tubes from thermal cycling and vibration wear. In this study, a new sizing criterion is proposed for the tube inlet orifice to suppress the parallel channel instability in an OTSG. A perturbation method is used to capture the essential parts of the thermal-hydraulic phenomena of the parallel channel instability. The perturbation model of the heat transfer regime boundaries is identified as a missing part in existing models for sizing the OTSG tube inlet orifice. Limitations and deficiency of the existing models are identified and the reasons for the limitations are explained. The newly proposed model can be utilized to size the tube inlet orifice to suppress the parallel channel instability without excessive engineering margin.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.10-17
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• 2020

Securing the integrity of steam generator tubes is an essential requirement for safe operation of nuclear power plants. Therefore, tubes that do not satisfy integrity requirements are no longer usable and must be repaired according to the related requirements. In general, the repair criterion is that the damage depth is more than 40% of the tube wall thickness. However, the plugging limit can be changed and be applied, provided a technical proof is given that integrity can be secured against specific degradation at a specific plants and that approval can be obtained from a regulatory agency. A typical example is alternative repair criteria for defects within the tube sheet or tube support plates. In this paper, a background of establishing the plugging limit for steam generator tubes and changes in maintenance criteria are reviewed as examples.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.9
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• pp.3283-3292
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• 2022

Based on the Deep Q-Network(DQN) algorithm of reinforcement learning, an active fault-tolerance method with incremental action is proposed for the control system with sensor faults of the once-through steam generator(OTSG). In this paper, we first establish the OTSG model as the interaction environment for the agent of reinforcement learning. The reinforcement learning agent chooses an action according to the system state obtained by the pressure sensor, the incremental action can gradually approach the optimal strategy for the current fault, and then the agent updates the network by different rewards obtained in the interaction process. In this way, we can transform the active fault tolerant control process of the OTSG to the reinforcement learning agent's decision-making process. The comparison experiments compared with the traditional reinforcement learning algorithm(RL) with fixed strategies show that the active fault-tolerant controller designed in this paper can accurately and rapidly control under sensor faults so that the pressure of the OTSG can be stabilized near the set-point value, and the OTSG can run normally and stably.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.8
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• pp.1314-1323
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• 2018

For nuclear power plants (NPPs) to have long lifetimes, ageing is a major issue. Currently, ageing management for NPP systems is based on correlations built from generic experimental data. However, each system has its own characteristics, operational history, and environment. To account for this, it is possible to resort to prognostics that predicts the future state and time to failure (TTF) of the target system by updating the generic correlation with specific information of the target system. In this paper, we present an application of particle filtering for the prediction of degradation in steam generator tubes. With a case study, we also show how the prediction results vary depending on the uncertainty of the measurement data.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.14-20
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• 2012

Full load rejection capability of nuclear power plant depends primarily on steam dump capacity (SDCAP) and steam generator level control capability. Recently, Ulchin Units 1&2 have performed stretched power uprate (SPU) and replacement steam generator (RSG) projects, which increase the power by 4.5 percent. They change major design or operating parameters and especially reduces steam dump capacity at full power due to increase of the steam flow. The reduction of SDC after SPU results in degradation of heat removal capability in full load rejection transients. Therefore, we should perform evaluation to determine whether reactor trips occur in large load rejection transients. Uchin Units 1&2 have experienced full load rejection (FLR) three times from 2004 to 2010. Operating data from the plant occurrence of FLR at Ulchin Units 1&2 showed that steam generator (SG) level transients were limiting in point of reactor trip. However the plant had never reached reactor trip in the FLR and successfully continued in house load operation. The parameters and setpoints for the SG will be changed if the SG is replaced. Therefore, we evaluated the appropriateness of steam dump, main feedwater and steam generator water level control system preventing the plant from reactor trip in case of FLR by the parameter sensitivity study whether SG water level operated smoothly after SPU and RSG projects.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.418-419
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.955-956
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• 2005

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.12
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• pp.2699-2708
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• 2020

Helical-coil steam generator (HCSG) technology is a major design candidate for small modular reactors due to its compactness and capability to produce superheated steam with high generation efficiency. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of the passively autonomous power maneuvering by coupling the 3-D transient multi-physics of a soluble-boron-free (SBF) core with a time-dependent HCSG model. The predictor corrector quasi-static method was used to reduce the cost of the transient 3-D neutronic solution. In the numerical system simulations, the feedwater flow rate to the secondary of the HCSGs is adjusted to extract the demanded power from the primary loop. This varies the coolant temperature at the inlet of the SBF core, which governs the passively autonomous power maneuvering due to the strongly negative coolant reactivity feedback. Here, we simulate a 100-50-100 load-follow operation with a 5%/minute power ramping speed to investigate the feasibility of the passively autonomous load-follow in a 450 MW_th SBF PWR. In addition, the passively autonomous frequency control operation is investigated. The various system models are coupled, and they are solved by an in-house Fortran-95 code. The results of this work demonstrate constant steam temperature in the secondary side and limited variation of the primary coolant temperature. Meanwhile, the variations of the core axial shape index and the core power peaking are sufficiently small.