Computational fluid dynamic assisted control system design methodology using system identification technique for CANDU supercritical water cooled reactor (SCWR)

The supercritical water cooled reactor (SCWR) is one of the six Generation IV nuclear reactors. A novel control system design method for the Canadian SCWR, known as CANDU SCWR, is developed in this study. The main dynamic of this reactor can be represented as a multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) system governed by highly non-linear partial differential equations. Even though the non-linear governing equations of such a reactor can be solved using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques, it is difficult to convert the existing non-linear partial differential equations to linear dynamic models to facilitate its control system design. To deal with this problem, a new approach is developed herein, which uses the results from CFD simulations to derive the linear dynamic models around several chosen operating points based on system identification techniques. The derived linear dynamic models have been validated by comparing it with the data from the non-linear dynamic model.