Modeling and control simulation of the China CLEAR-IB

• A model for the reactor for CLEAR-IB was developed.
• A PI controller was designed to control the power.
• A control strategy was adopted to control the water enthalpy of air cooler.
• Dynamic simulation of the whole system was performed.

To investigate the dynamic and control characteristics of the plant, a model for the main components of the reactor and the most relevant interactions among them is developed. The system comprises of the primary system with lead bismuth eutectic (LBE) as the coolant, the secondary circuit with steam water mixture as the coolant and the associated air cooling system for an effective rejection of thermal power to the environment as a final heat sink. A Proportional-Integral (PI) controller is designed to keep the power following the set value as quickly as possible. To keep outlet coolant of air coolers and inlet coolant of HXs being saturated water, a control strategy based on a simultaneous feed-forward and feedback scheme has been adopted. Based on the developed model and control strategy, dynamic simulation of the whole system in the cases of step changes of external source and load is performed. The simulation results show that the proposed model is accurate enough to describe the dynamic behaviors of the plant in spite of its simplicity. It has also been demonstrated that the developed controllers for the CLEAR-IB can provide superior reactor control capabilities due to the efficiency of the control strategy adopted.