Development of Model Predictive Control (MPC) Validation Tool for APR+

One of the challenging design goals of advanced power reactor plus (APR+) is to have daily load following capability and frequency control design features. It is well-known that highly sophisticated control algorithms are required to accomplish successful load following operations because of non-linear characteristics of core dynamics. A validation tool for the MPC was developed with the window based nuclear plant analyzer (Win-NPA). Also a test matrix was derived to cover all postulated operational modes that the MPC is expected to experience. In this paper, the features of the dynamic performance validation tool, test method and test results are presented. The validation tool of the MPC for APR+ has been developed by using Win-NPA and applied to the well-defined test cases. The performance of the MPC was evaluated to be acceptable for all test cases and, therefore, it was concluded that the newly introduced load following controller MPC can be applied to the APR+ plant. In addition to that, by the development of the validation tool for the MPC, a consistent working environment become available from the design stage of control logic to the last stage of equipment validation test, because the same set of C++ code can be applied throughout the whole engineering processes.