Statistical Overpower Penalty Modeling for Reactor Thermal Margin
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing thermal margin analysis models for nuclear power plants, such as the generic thermal margin analysis model, calculate overpower penalties based on limited operating conditions and axial power distributions, leading to excessively conservative thermal margins due to the selection of minimum values from a restricted range, failing to reflect various combinations of conditions.
Innovation Solution
A statistical overpower penalty calculation system that generates random numbers to simulate a range of operating conditions, calculates power distributions, and statistically analyzes these penalties to determine a representative tolerance limit value, thereby adjusting the thermal margin more accurately and non-conservatively.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a limited number of operating conditions and axial power distributions are used for overpower penalty calculation, then the calculation process is simple and fast, but the thermal margin becomes excessively conservative and does not reflect various combinations of conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the static selection of limited operating conditions into a dynamic statistical sampling process. Instead of fixing a small number of conditions, the system dynamically generates multiple random samples from the full range of possible operating conditions and axial power distributions, allowing the analysis to adaptively explore the entire parameter space while maintaining computational efficiency through Monte Carlo methodology.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the approach from evaluating a fixed set of discrete parameters to statistically sampling continuous parameter distributions. By transforming operating conditions and axial power distributions into probability distributions and sampling from them, the system achieves both computational tractability and comprehensive coverage of the parameter space, resolving the contradiction between simplicity and accuracy.
2Device complexity
If the minimum value among limited overpower penalties is selected as the representative value, then the calculation is straightforward, but the thermal margin is excessively conservative
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical approach of selecting a minimum value from a limited set with a statistical methodology. Instead of a deterministic minimum selection that yields overly conservative results, the system uses statistical analysis of sampled data to determine representative overpower penalty values, substituting a simplistic mechanical rule with a more sophisticated statistical framework that better represents the true thermal margin.
3Reliability
If various combinations of operating conditions and axial power distributions are reflected, then the thermal margin becomes more accurate and less conservative, but the calculation complexity and computational resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses Monte Carlo sampling to create representative copies of the full parameter space through a manageable number of random samples. Instead of exhaustively analyzing all possible combinations of operating conditions and axial power distributions, the system generates statistical copies that capture the essential variability and uncertainty, achieving accurate thermal margin assessment without prohibitive computational complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a statistical overpower penalty calculation system for a generic thermal margin analysis model, the system including: a random number generating unit generating a plurality of random numbers; an power distribution generating unit generating power information of an axial direction and a radial direction for a core burnup; an operating condition generating unit extracting an arbitrary value for a plurality of operating conditions from the random number generated above; a POL calculating unit calculating a POL of a reload core thermal margin analysis model and a POL of a generic thermal margin analysis model and calculating a plurality of the overpower penalties through the POLs; and a statistics processing unit calculating tolerance limit values according to the core burnup by statistically analyzing a distribution formed of the plurality of the overpower penalties and selecting a smallest tolerance limit value as a representative value of the overpower penalties.