Evaluating the effects of cooling schedule on the performance of ADORE

ADORE is an algorithm developed recently as a part of toolsets used for designing the regional overpower protection (ROP) systems in CANDU reactors. The ADORE algorithm utilizes the simulated annealing (SA) technique as its optimization engine to optimize the placement of the ROP detectors in the core. Within the implementation of the SA technique, there are many user-defined parameters which could be fine-tuned to help attaining the “best” quasi-optimal solution to an optimization problem. The SA parameter of interest evaluated in this study is the temperature reduction or cooling schedule. Five different schedules have been evaluated and the results are presented in this paper. The results indicate that the cooling schedule where the temperature is reduced exponentially performs the best.