Title: Boiling water reactors as dynamic complex systems

Authors: Abdelhamid Dokhane

Addresses: Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, KSA; AF-Colenco, Nuclear Technology Department, Tafernstrasse 26, CH-5405 Baden, Switzerland

Abstract: The research studied and analysed the nonlinear behaviour of Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs) using a new analytical reduced-order model. This model was applied to analyse global and regional oscillations in BWRs. Stability and semi-analytical bifurcation analyses were performed using this model in conjunction with the bifurcation code BIFDD to determine the stability limits for both in-phase and out-of-phase oscillation modes and the nature of Hopf bifurcation. The results obtained show that both sub- and supercritical Hopf bifurcations are encountered in different regions of the parameter space. Furthermore, numerical integrations of the set of Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs) were carried out in the MATLAB environment using the so-called Gear|s method. Results confirm the predictions of the bifurcation analyses.

Keywords: boiling water reactors; BWR; nonlinear behaviour; bifurcation analysis; Gear|s method; regional oscillations; global oscillations; ordinary differential equations; ODE; nuclear energy; nuclear power.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNEST.2009.028588

International Journal of Nuclear Energy Science and Technology, 2009 Vol.4 No.4, pp.275 - 286

Published online: 19 Sep 2009 *

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