Dynamic Matrix Control for the Thermal Power of MHTGR-Based Nuclear Steam Supply System

The modular high temperature gas-cooled reactor (MHTGR) based nuclear steam supplying system (NSSS) is constituted by an MHTGR, a once-through steam generator (OTSG) and can generate superheated steam for industrial heat or electric power generation. The wide range closed-loop stability is achieved...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Di Jiang, Zhe Dong, Miao Liu, Xiaojin Huang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2018-10-01
Series:Energies
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/10/2651
Description
Summary:The modular high temperature gas-cooled reactor (MHTGR) based nuclear steam supplying system (NSSS) is constituted by an MHTGR, a once-through steam generator (OTSG) and can generate superheated steam for industrial heat or electric power generation. The wide range closed-loop stability is achieved by the recently proposed coordinated control law, in which the neutron flux and the temperatures of both main steam and primary coolant are chosen as controlled variables, and the flowrates of both primary and secondary loop and the control rod speed are chosen as manipulated variables. However, the thermal power is only controlled in open loop manner and hence could be further optimized through feedback. Motivated by this, a dynamic matrix control (DMC) is proposed for optimizing the thermal power of MHTGR based NSSS. A simple step-response model with the thermal power response data is utilized in designing the DMC. The design objective of DMC is to optimize the deviation of the thermal power from its reference under its rate constraint. Then, by the virtue of strong stability of existing control law and optimization ability of DMC, a cascade control structure is implemented for the thermal power optimization, with the coordinated control law in the inner loop and DMC in the outer loop. Numerical simulation results show the satisfactory improvement of thermal power response. This cascade control structure inherits the advantages of both proportional-integral-differential (PID) control and DMC, by which the zeros offset and the short settling time of thermal power are realized.
ISSN:1996-1073