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Multi-physics coupling rapid prediction method and autonomous control method for heat pipe nuclear reactors
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DOI：10.1016/j.anucene.2025.111927.png)
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Abstract
En 中文
The coupling mechanism of neutronics-thermo-stress-strain fields within heat-pipe-cooled reactors necessitates accurate and rapid transient multi-physics coupling simulation methods for analyzing their dynamic behavior. To address this challenge, this study proposes a transient multi-physics coupling computational platform for heat-pipe reactors. This platform integrates a quasi-steady-state neutronics model, a heat conduction model, a heat pipe analysis model, and a stress-strain model, enabling high-fidelity prediction of the dynamic responses of reactor power, material temperature, and core deformation. To reduce the computational cost of simulating fuel rod power distribution, a neutronics reduced-order model (ROM) is developed using the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition-Radial Basis Function (POD-RBF) method. Numerical results demonstrate that the POD-RBF method accurately predicts the three-dimensional fuel rod power distribution, achieving an average error of 0.39% and a maximum error of 3.04%. Building upon the neutronics ROM, a rapid prediction method for transient multi-physics coupling in heat-pipe reactors is proposed. Furthermore, a Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller is incorporated to develop an autonomous multi-physics coupling control method specifically for the reactor core startup process. This method successfully achieves dynamic regulation from initial power to a target power of 5 MW. A systematic comparison is conducted to evaluate the impact of control drum adjustment precision on core power increase and core safety characteristics. Besides, the rapid multi-physics coupling prediction method significantly reduces the total computation time for the startup transient process from 61 days using conventional methods to approximately 6.3 h. This approach provides a feasible solution for predicting the transient behavior and implementing autonomous control in heat-pipe reactors.
Keywords:
Heat pipe nuclear reactor
Transient multi-physics coupling simulation
Reduced order model
POD-RBF
Autonomous control
Journal
A
IF:
2.3
Papers:
416
Citations:
1.5W