Abstract
The advanced mechanical shim (MSHIM) core control strategy is implemented in the AP1000 reactor for core reactivity and axial power distribution control simultaneously. In this paper, the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm has been used to optimize the MSHIM control system parameters for AP1000 reactor. First, a nodal core model is adopted to describe the dynamic behavior of the reactor core. Then, a simulation platform of the AP1000 reactor including the nodal core model and the MSHIM control strategy is developed in Matlab/Simulink. Based on the simulation platform, the typical 10% step load decrease from 100% to 90% full power is simulated to generate necessary data and the PSO algorithm is implemented successfully for the optimization of MSHIM control system parameters. It has been demonstrated by the calculation results that the optimized MSHIM control system parameters can improve the reactor power control capability without compromising axial offset control.
