An Analytical Method For The Solution Of Reactor Dynamic Equations

Abstract

Microcomputers are becoming increasingly popular in systems simulation because of their low cost and improved performance. One of the challenges of modelling nuclear reactor dynamics on microcomputers is that of finding robust techniques which guarantee the required level of accuracy and at the same time produce results in reasonable time. In this paper, an analytical method for the solution of nuclear reactor dynamic equations is presented. The method is applied to a linearised high-order deterministic model of a pressurised water reactor plant driven by step-reactivity insertion. A comparison of this method with two other techniques (the matrix exponential and finite difference approximation methods) shows that the analytical method yields the most accurate results on a microcomputer and it is also found to be numerically stable over all integration step-sizes investigated.

Key words: linearisation, PWR, reactivity, deterministic model, reactor dynamics

Nig. J. of Pure & Appl. Physics Vol.3 2004: 1-7