• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.50 no.8
• /
• pp.1277-1288
• /
• 2018

In this work, the reactor kinetics capability is used to compute the design safety parameters in a PWR due to complete loss of coolant flow during protected and unprotected accidents. A thermal-hydraulic code coupled with a point reactor kinetic model are used for these calculations; where kinetics parameters have been developed from the neutronic SRAC code to provide inputs to RELAP5-3D code to calculate parameters related to safety and guarantee that they meet the regulatory requirements. In RELAP5-3D the reactivity feedback is computed by both separable and tabular models. The results show the importance of the reactivity feedback on calculating the power which is the key parameter that controls the clad and fuel temperatures to maintain them below their melting point and therefore prevent core melt. In addition, extending modeling capability from separable to tabular model has nonremarkable influence on calculated safety parameters.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.47 no.1
• /
• pp.94-101
• /
• 2015

This paper presents findings on the second-order sliding-mode controller for a nuclear research reactor. Sliding-mode controllers for nuclear reactors have been used for some time, but higher-order sliding-mode controllers have the added advantage of reduced chattering. The nonlinear model of Pakistan Research Reactor-1 has been used for higherorder sliding-mode controller design and performance evaluation. The reactor core is simulated based on point kinetics equations and one delayed neutron groups. The model assumes feedback from lumped fuel and coolant temperatures. The effect of xenon concentration is also considered. The employed method is easy to implement in practical applications, and the second-order sliding-mode control exhibits the desired dynamic properties during the entire output-tracking process. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller in terms of performance, robustness, and stability.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.53 no.2
• /
• pp.414-422
• /
• 2021

The aim of this work considers a second order point reactor kinetics model based on the P1 approximation of transport theory, called in this work as P1 point reactor model. The P1 point reactor model implicitly considers the time derivative of the neutron source which has not been thus considered previously. The inverse method to calculate the reactivity in nuclear reactors -chosen because its high accuracy- Matrix Formulation. The numerical results shown that the Matrix Formulation for the reactivity estimation constitutes a method with insignificant calculation errors.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.50 no.1
• /
• pp.97-106
• /
• 2018

Improved load-following capability is one of the most important technical tasks of a pressurized water reactor. Controlling the nuclear reactor core during load-following operation leads to some difficulties. These difficulties mainly arise from nuclear reactor core limitations in local power peaking: the core is subjected to sharp and large variation of local power density during transients. Axial offset (AO) is the parameter usually used to represent the core power peaking. One of the important local power peaking components in nuclear reactors is axial power peaking, which continuously changes. The main challenge of nuclear reactor control during load-following operation is to maintain the AO within acceptable limits, at a certain reference target value. This article proposes a new robust approach to AO control of pressurized water reactors during load-following operation. This method uses robust feedback-linearization control based on the multipoint kinetics reactor model (neutronic and thermal-hydraulic). In this model, the reactor core is divided into four nodes along the reactor axis. Simulation results show that this method improves the reactor load-following capability in the presence of parameter uncertainty and disturbances and can use optimum control rod groups to maneuver with variable overlapping.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.124-130
• /
• 1997

Wastewater containing phenol was treated using Pseudomonas sp. B3 in continuous reactor, reaction characteristics and kinetics according to variation of volumetric loading rate in continuous reactor were studied. The removal efficiencies of phenol were more than 99% at the whole range of experiment, and those of COD were 97% at the volumetric loading rate, $0.96kg/m^3{\cdot}d$ and 88% at $3.0kg/m^3{\cdot}d$, respectively. Kinetics constants of $q_m$, $K_s$, Y and $K_d$ were obtained 0.901 l/d, 0.620mg/l, 0.659 and 0.219 l/d, respectively. As compared with to constants of standard activated sludge process, these constants were remarkably different because of toxicity and inhibition of phenol to microbes. And also, kinetics constants of oxygen utilization, a, and b, were shown 0.384 kg $O_2/kg$ phenol and 0.029 l/d.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.53 no.8
• /
• pp.2556-2563
• /
• 2021

Metaheuristic algorithms can work well in solving or optimizing problems, especially those that require approximation or do not have a good analytical solution. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is one of these algorithms. The response quality of these algorithms depends on the objective function and its regulated parameters. The nonlinear nature of the pressurized light-water nuclear reactor (PWR) dynamics is a significant target for PSO. The two-point kinetics model of this type of reactor is used because of fission products properties. The proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller is intended to control the power level of the PWR at a short-time transient. The absolute error (IAE), integral of square error (ISE), integral of time-absolute error (ITAE), and integral of time-square error (ITSE) objective functions have been used as performance indexes to tune the PID gains with PSO. The optimization results with each of them are evaluated with the number of function evaluations (NFE). All performance indexes achieve good results with differences in the rate of over/under-shoot or convergence rate of the cost function, in the desired time domain.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.51 no.1
• /
• pp.144-150
• /
• 2013

The kinetics of the transesterification of dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) with ethylene glycol (EG) was studied in a batch reactor. Bishydroxyethyl terephthalate (BHET), which is poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) monomer, can be produced by the transesterification reaction. Zinc acetate was used as a catalyst. Previous kinetic studies was carried out in a semi-batch reactor where generated methanol was removed so that reverse reactions were not considered in the kinetic expressions, resulting in inaccuracy of the kinetic model. Mathematical models of a batch reactor for the tranesterification reaction were developed and used to characterize the reaction kinetics and the composition distribution of the reaction products. More accurate models than previous ones were obtained and found to have a good agreement between model predictions and experimental data. Effect of process variables on the esterification reaction was investigated based on the experimental and simulation results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.52 no.6
• /
• pp.1340-1346
• /
• 2020

The aim of this paper is to explore the 8th-order Adams-Bashforth-Moulton (ABM8) method in the solution of the point reactor kinetics equations. The numerical experiment considers feedback reactivity by Doppler effects, and insertions of reactivity. The Doppler effects is approximated with an adiabatic nuclear reactor that is a typical approximation. The numerical results were compared and discussed with several solution methods. The CATS method was used as a benchmark method. According with the numerical experiments results, the ABM8 method can be considered as one of the main solution method for changes reactivity relatively large.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.98-109
• /
• 1983

A two-step alternating direction explicit method is developed to solve the space-dependent reactor kinetics equations in two space dimensions. As a special case in the general class of alternating direction implicit methods, this method is analysed for accuracy and stability. To test the validity of this method it is compared with the implicit-difference method used in the TWIGL program. It is shown that the two methods are closely related. The time dependent neutron fluxes of the pressurized water reactor (PWR), during control rod insertion, and, of the CANDU-PHW reactor, in case of postulated loss of coolant accident, are obtained from the numerical calculation results.

• Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.309-317
• /
• 2019

This study evaluated the kinetics of acrylamide (AM) biodegradation by mixed culture bacteria and Enterobacter aerogenes (E. aerogenes) in sequencing batch reactor (SBR) systems with AQUASIM and linear regression. The zero-order, first-order, and Monod kinetic models were used to evaluate the kinetic parameters of both autotrophic and heterotrophic nitrifications and both AM and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removals at different AM concentrations of 100, 200, 300, and 400 mg AM/L. The results revealed that both autotrophic and heterotrophic nitrifications and both AM and COD removals followed the Monod kinetics. High AM loadings resulted in the transformation of Monod kinetics to the first-order reaction for AM and COD removals as the results of the compositions of mixed substrates and the inhibition of the free ammonia nitrogen (FAN). The kinetic parameters indicated that E. aerogenes degraded AM and COD at higher rates than mixed culture bacteria. The FAN from the AM biodegradation increased both heterotrophic and autotrophic nitrification rates at the AM concentrations of 100-300 mg AM/L. At higher AM concentrations, the FAN accumulated in the SBR system inhibited the autotrophic nitrification of mixed culture bacteria. The accumulation of intracellular polyphosphate caused the heterotrophic nitrification of E. aerogenes to follow the first-order approximation.