(A) PC-based real-time simulator for two-loop pressurized water reactor plants

Abstract

A PC-based real-time simulator for two-loop pressurized water reactor plants, FISA-2/PC, has been developed for classroom training in support of full-scope simulator, onsite transient analysis, and engineering studies. The FISA-2/PC package consists of three functional modules: plant module, graphic display module, and interactive communication module. The plant module based on first-principle includes models for core kinetics, reactor coolant system, steam generator, main steam line, and control and protection systems. Each of the models is optimized to obtain the capability of real-time simulation. In the plant module, implicit algorithms in lieu of explicit ones are used due to their inherent stability and efficiency in solving the stiff set of equations resulted from component models. Especially for simulating the reactor coolant system thermal-hydraulics, the FISA-2 numerical scheme is developed, which adopts a fully-implicit two-fluid model for two-phase flow. It allows the use of a larger time-step than the Courant limit without any numerical instability, and it also guarantees reasonable accuracy. As tools for man/machine interface, FISA-2/PC uses a color CRT monitor, a standard keyboard, and a mouse. The menu-driven on-line graphic display module receives the values of about 140 parameters from the plat module and subsequently displays some parameters selected by the user on a color CRT monitor. It is designed to provide the user with more information at a glance by dynamically displaying schematic diagrams of the systems, vertical bar chart, symbols indicating the operating status of each component, alphanumeric values, and trend curves. The interactive communication module receives about 60 parameters from the user via the keyboard and mouse, and transfers them to the plant module so as to enable the user to perform his specific actions. In order to facilitate interactive communications, the tree-structured menu are always prepared on the monitor. Th...