Design of novel fractional order FPGA based reactor protection and safety controllers for ACP1000 nuclear power plant in LabVIEW

Abstract

In this research work, an advanced most modern ACP1000 Nuclear Power Plant is addressed. An enhanced fractional order model of ACP1000 nuclear power plant is adopted with an addition of protection and safety systems. The whole plant model is developed by using innovative hybrid technology of Visual Basic, LabVIEW, Fractional Order and Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). A reactor trip system is designed and modeled using FPGA technology in LabVIEW. Plant parameters are systematically modeled and panels are designed in LabVIEW for reactor protection controllers. Twenty one reactor trip controllers are designed and modeled based on complex digital logics using FPGA programming in LabVIEW. Two fractional order trip controllers are designed for over temperature protection and over power protection in LabVIEW. FPGA based safety controllers are designed for Engineered Safety Features (ESF) in LabVIEW. For enhanced model of ACP1000 nuclear power plant, 374 systems are modeled in modular form in Visual Basic Environment. Nine process controllers are configured in ANFIS framework in LabVIEW. In this research work, process controllers are used in conjunction with protection and safety controllers using FPGA. The parametric display of simulations is carried out in Visual Basic. The closed loop performance of proposed protection controllers is evaluated under reactor trip and turbine trip while that of safety controllers are evaluated under inadvertent opening of safety valves of pressurizer. Various parameters are simulated for severe transient conditions and the results are evaluated and validated against reference design data and Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) of ACP1000 nuclear power plant. All the results are well within the trip and safety systems design bounds under abnormal and severe operating conditions.