Investigation of Spatial Control Strategies with Application to Advanced Heavy Water Reactor

This book examines the different spatial control techniques for regulation of spatial power distribution in advanced heavy water reactors (AHWR). It begins with a review of the literature pertinent to the modeling and control of large reactors. It also offers a nodal-core model based on finite difference approximation since the AHWR core is considered to be divided into 17 relatively large nodes. Further, it introduces a nonlinear model characterizing important thermal hydraulics parameters of AHWR and integrates it into the neutronics model to obtain a coupled neutronics-thermal hydraulics model of AHWR. The book also presents a vectorized nonlinear model of AHWR and implements it in MATLAB/Simulink environment. The model of the reactor is then linearized at the rated power and put into standard state variable form. It is characterized by 90 states, 5 inputs and 18 outputs. Lastly, it discusses control techniques for a nonlinear model of AHWR. This book will prove to be a valuable resource for professional engineers and implementation specialists, researchers and students.