Multicriterion Synthesis of Intelligent Control Systems of Generating Unit of Nuclear Power Station

The paper is devoted to solution of some problems in nuclear power station generating unit intellectual control systems using genetic algorithms on the basis of control system model development, optimizations methods of their direct quality indices and improved integral quadratic estimates. Some mathematical vector models were obtained for control system multicriterion quality indices with due consideration of stability and quality indices criteria, this increasing the reliability of optimal control system synthesis. Optimal control systems with fuzzy controllers were synthesized for nuclear reactor, steam generator and steam turbine, thus allowing comparison between fuzzy controllers and traditional PID controllers. Mathematical models built for nuclear power station generating unit control systems, including nuclear reactor, steam generator, steam turbine and their control systems interacting under normal operational modes, which permitted to perform parametrical synthesis of system and to study various power unit control laws. On the basis of power unit control system models controllers were synthesized for normal operational modes

Multicriterion Synthesis of Intelligent Control Systems of Generating Unit of Nuclear Power Station

The paper is devoted to solution of some problems in nuclear power station generating unit intellectual control systems using genetic algorithms on the basis of control system model development, optimizations methods of their direct quality indices and improved integral quadratic estimates. Some mathematical vector models were obtained for control system multicriterion quality indices with due consideration of stability and quality indices criteria, this increasing the reliability of optimal control system synthesis. Optimal control systems with fuzzy controllers were synthesized for nuclear reactor, steam generator and steam turbine, thus allowing comparison between fuzzy controllers and traditional PID controllers. Mathematical models built for nuclear power station generating unit control systems, including nuclear reactor, steam generator, steam turbine and their control systems interacting under normal operational modes, which permitted to perform parametrical synthesis of system and to study various power unit control laws. On the basis of power unit control system models controllers were synthesized for normal operational modes

Computational intelligence techniques for maximum energy efficiency of cogeneration processes based on internal combustion engines

153 p.El objeto de la tesis consiste en desarrollar estrategias de modelado y optimización del rendimiento energético de plantas de cogeneración basadas en motores de combustión interna (MCI), mediante el uso de las últimas tecnologías de inteligencia computacional. Con esta finalidad se cuenta con datos reales de una planta de cogeneración de energía, propiedad de la compañía EnergyWorks, situada en la localidad de Monzón (provincia de Huesca). La tesis se realiza en el marco de trabajo conjunto del Grupo de Diseño en Electrónica Digital (GDED) de la Universidad del País Vasco UPV/EHU y la empresa Optimitive S.L., empresa dedicada al software avanzado para la mejora en tiempo real de procesos industriale

Fractional Order Fuzzy Control of Nuclear Reactor Power with Thermal-Hydraulic Effects in the Presence of Random Network Induced Delay and Sensor Noise having Long Range Dependence

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.Nonlinear state space modeling of a nuclear reactor has been done for the purpose of controlling its global power in load following mode. The nonlinear state space model has been linearized at different percentage of reactor powers and a novel fractional order (FO) fuzzy proportional integral derivative (PID) controller is designed using real coded Genetic Algorithm (GA) to control the reactor power level at various operating conditions. The effectiveness of using the fuzzy FOPID controller over conventional fuzzy PID controllers has been shown with numerical simulations. The controllers tuned with the highest power models are shown to work well at other operating conditions as well; over the lowest power model based design and hence are robust with respect to the changes in nuclear reactor operating power levels. This paper also analyzes the degradation of nuclear reactor power signal due to network induced random delays in shared communication network and due to sensor noise while being fed-back to the Reactor Regulating System (RRS). The effect of long range dependence (LRD) which is a practical consideration for the stochastic processes like network induced delay and sensor noise has been tackled by optimum tuning of FO fuzzy PID controllers using GA, while also taking the operating point shift into consideration

Determination of prime implicants by differential evolution for the dynamic reliability analysis of non-coherent nuclear systems

open4We present an original computational method for the identification of prime implicants (PIs) in non-coherent structure functions of dynamic systems. This is a relevant problem for dynamic reliability analysis, when dynamic effects render inadequate the traditional methods of minimal cut-set identification. PIs identification is here transformed into an optimization problem, where we look for the minimum combination of implicants that guarantees the best coverage of all the minterms. For testing the method, an artificial case study has been implemented, regarding a system composed by five components that fail at random times with random magnitudes. The system undergoes a failure if during an accidental scenario a safety-relevant monitored signal raises above an upper threshold or decreases below a lower threshold. Truth tables of the two system end-states are used to identify all the minterms. Then, the PIs that best cover all minterms are found by Modified Binary Differential Evolution. Results and performances of the proposed method have been compared with those of a traditional analytical approach known as Quine-McCluskey algorithm and other evolutionary algorithms, such as Genetic Algorithm and Binary Differential Evolution. The capability of the method is confirmed with respect to a dynamic Steam Generator of a Nuclear Power Plant.Di Maio, Francesco; Baronchelli, Samuele; Vagnoli, Matteo; Zio, EnricoDI MAIO, Francesco; Baronchelli, Samuele; Vagnoli, Matteo; Zio, Enric

Advances in Theoretical and Computational Energy Optimization Processes

The paradigm in the design of all human activity that requires energy for its development must change from the past. We must change the processes of product manufacturing and functional services. This is necessary in order to mitigate the ecological footprint of man on the Earth, which cannot be considered as a resource with infinite capacities. To do this, every single process must be analyzed and modified, with the aim of decarbonising each production sector. This collection of articles has been assembled to provide ideas and new broad-spectrum contributions for these purposes

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF INTELLIGENT MONITORING SYSTEMS FOR THERMAL POWER PLANT BOILER TRIPS

Steam boilers represent the main equipment in the power plant. Some boiler trips may lead to an entire shutdown of the plant, which is economically burdensome. An early detection and diagnosis of the boiler trips is crucial to maintain normal and safe operational conditions of the plant. Numbers of methodologies have been proposed in the literature for fault diagnosis of power plants. However, rapid deployment of these methodologies is difficult to be achieved due to certain inherent limitations such as system inability to learn or a dynamically improve the system performance and the brittleness of the system beyond its domain of expertise. As a potential solution to these problems, two artificial intelligent monitoring systems specialized in boiler trips have been proposed and coded within the MA TLAB environment in the present work. The training and validation of the two systems have been performed using real operational data which was captured from the plant integrated acquisition system of JANAMANJUNG coal-fired power plant. An integrated plant data preparation framework for seven boiler trips with related operational variables, has been proposed for the training and validation of the proposed artificial intelligent systems. The feedforward neural network methodology has been adopted as a major computational intelligent tool in both systems. The root mean square error has been widely used as a performance indicator of the proposed systems. The first intelligent monitoring system represents the use of the pure artificial neural network system for boiler trip detection. The final architecture for this system has been explored after investigation of various main neural network topology combinations which include one and two hidden layers, one to ten neurons for each hidden layer, three types of activation function, and four types of multidimensional minimization training algorithms. It has been found that there was no general neural network topology combination that can be applied for all boiler trips. All seven boiler trips under consideration had been detected by the proposed systems before or at the same time as the plant control system. The second intelligent monitoring system represents mergmg of genetic algorithms and artificial neural networks as a hybrid intelligent system. For this hybrid intelligent system, the selection of appropriate variables from hundreds of boiler operation variables with optimal neural network topology combinations to monitor boiler trips was a major concern. The encoding and optimization process using genetic algorithms has been applied successfully. A slightly lower root mean square error was observed in the second system which reveals that the hybrid intelligent system performed better than the pure neural network system. Also, the optimal selection of the most influencing variables was performed successfully by the hybrid intelligent system. The proposed artificial intelligent systems could be adopted on-line as a reliable controller of the thermal power plant boiler

Understanding the Application and Benefits of Learning-based Methods in Nuclear Science and Engineering

Known as the fourth industrial revolution, digitization is an ongoing trend in all fields, in which various industries are integrating information technologies to support and improve their businesses. Nuclear technology industries have also increased their interest in data-driven methods by leveraging the potential of pattern recognition to identify anomalies and to take actions more rapidly, in areas such as health and monitoring, radiation detection, and optimization. By acknowledging the practicality and popularity of these methods, it is imperative to understand the benefits and barriers of implementing such methodologies to create better research plans and identify project risks and opportunities. This dissertation discusses different technologies and their integration and challenges within the nuclear industry. It is recognized that concepts of complexity and emergent behavior, as well as the importance of such properties as a distinctive aspect of nuclear and radiological engineering problems in which holistic approaches are crucial to innovation. Overall, the development and application of learning-based methods can be promising in the nuclear industry and many related tasks as long as expert knowledge is considered in the desired application to ensure a robust application of such methods. Cross-discipline studies and the creation of benchmarks are highly suggested for future practices

Risk-based clustering for near misses identification in integrated deterministic and probabilistic safety analysis

In integrated deterministic and probabilistic safety analysis (IDPSA), safe scenarios and prime implicants (PIs) are generated by simulation. In this paper, we propose a novel postprocessing method, which resorts to a risk-based clustering method for identifying Near Misses among the safe scenarios. This is important because the possibility of recovering these combinations of failures within a tolerable grace time allows avoiding deviations to accident and, thus, reducing the downtime (and the risk) of the system. The postprocessing risk-significant features for the clustering are extracted from the following: (i) the probability of a scenario to develop into an accidental scenario, (ii) the severity of the consequences that the developing scenario would cause to the system, and (iii) the combination of (i) and (ii) into the overall risk of the developing scenario. The optimal selection of the extracted features is done by a wrapper approach, whereby a modified binary differential evolution (MBDE) embeds a K-means clustering algorithm. The characteristics of the Near Misses scenarios are identified solving a multiobjective optimization problem, using the Hamming distance as a measure of similarity. The feasibility of the analysis is shown with respect to fault scenarios in a dynamic steam generator (SG) of a nuclear power plant (NPP)