DNBR Prediction Using a Support Vector Regression

PWRs (Pressurized Water Reactors) generally operate in the nucleate boiling state. However, the conversion of nucleate boiling into film boiling with conspicuously reduced heat transfer induces a boiling crisis that may cause the fuel clad melting in the long run. This type of boiling crisis is called Departure from Nucleate Boiling (DNB) phenomena. Because the prediction of minimum DNBR in a reactor core is very important to prevent the boiling crisis such as clad melting, a lot of research has been conducted to predict DNBR values. The object of this research is to predict minimum DNBR applying support vector regression (SVR) by using the measured signals of a reactor coolant system (RCS). The SVR has extensively and successfully been applied to nonlinear function approximation like the proposed problem for estimating DNBR values that will be a function of various input variables such as reactor power, reactor pressure, core mass flowrate, control rod positions and so on. The minimum DNBR in a reactor core is predicted using these various operating condition data as the inputs to the SVR. The minimum DBNR values predicted by the SVR confirm its correctness compared with COLSS values