Stability Analysis of Nuclear Reactors

Report submitted for partial fulfillment

of requirements of the course
EN 422 : Seminar

Submitted by -
Rituraj Ghosh
Roll No. 18I170009

Under the guidance of

Prof. Suneet Singh
Department of Energy Science & Engineering
IIT Bombay

Dated : 30​th ​April, 2019

Abstract
The behaviour of any system in and around it steady state or equilibrium point as a result
some perturbations applied on it is known as the stability analysis of the system. If the system
maintains its stability, then it is called stable equilibrium state. If the system loses its stability,
then it is called unstable equilibrium. Stability analysis of various systems has been the topic
of interest for researchers since a long time.

I have studied the analysis if nuclear reactors form some of the previous research papers and
gained a preliminary concept of nuclear reactor stability. In a paper by Wahi and Kumawat​[1]​,
studies done for general parametric values of reduced order model of Boiling Water Reactors
(BWR) is discussed. But the results are demonstrated for the parametric values relevant to the
Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR). First mathematical modeling was done which lead
to a system of nonlinear equations. We coupled, linearized and non-dimensionalized the
equations as per our convenience. Then we find the eigenvalues from the Jacobian matrix of
the system and apply bifurcation conditions to find the parametric values corresponding to the
bifurcation boundary

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Contents
List of symbols………………………………………………………………………………...3
1 Introduction…………...………………………………………………………………4
1.1 Need of Nuclear Energy and Reactor………………………………………….4
1.2 Nuclear Reactor………………………………………………………………..4
2 Literature Review…………………………………....…..…………………………...7
3 Mathematical Modelling………………………….…………...………...…………...8
3.1 Neutronics………………………………………….……………………...…..8
3.1.1 Neutronics Equation………………………..………………………….8
3.2 Thermal Hydraulics……………………….…………………………………...9
3.3 Reactivity Feedback………….……………………………………...……….10
4 Results and Discussion………………....……………......……………………...…..11
4.1 Stability Analysis……………………………....……………………………..11
4.1.1 Nonlinearity in the equations………………………………………....11
4.1.2 Coupling of the equations……………………………....…………….11
4.1.3 Non-dimensionalization……………..…………….…….…………...12
4.1.4 Linear Stability Analysis……....…………………….……………….13
5 Conclusion……………………...………...………………………………………….15
5.1 Present Work……………………...……..…………………………………...15
5.2 Future Work………....………………………………………………………..15
Bibliography………………………...……...………………………………………………..16

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List of symbols

N (τ ) Density of neutrons
C (τ ) Concentration of precursors of delayed neutrons
ϱ(τ ) Reactivity of the reactor
β Fraction of delayed neutrons
Λ Generation time of neutrons
λ1 Decay constant of precursors of delayed neutrons
C​f Fuel heat capacity
P (τ ) Power of the reactor
V (τ ) Void volume of the coolant
hf g Saturation pressure specific enthalpy

vg Specific volume of vapour at saturated pressure

P0 Power of the reactor at steady state
αf Fuel temperature coefficient

αv Coolant void fraction coefficient

T​f0 Steady state fuel temperature
V​0 Steady state void volume of coolant

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Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 Need of Nuclear Energy and Reactor

With increase in population, energy consumption is also increasing at a tremendous rate.
Most of the non-renewable sources are going to finish in the near future. To meet this demand
we need to shift our interest to other sources of energy. Nuclear energy is available to a large
extent from a very small amount of fuel. Also it does not cause pollution or threat to
environment like many of the non-renewable sources. All these reasons make the nuclear
energy very effective and dependable source of the future. So we need to work on nuclear
power plants and reactors to make them more efficient and minimise various risks and
accidents caused by these.

1.2 Nuclear Reactors

A nuclear reactor is a device which generates power and works on the principle of nuclear
fission. A heavy nucleus is broken down into lighter fragments by striking with a neutron.
Along with these fragments some neutrons are produced which are called prompt neutrons.
Some of these lighter fragments are unstable so they release neutrons and gamma rays by
radioactive decay to attain stability. These neutrons are called delayed neutrons and the
unstable nuclei which undergoes radioactive decay to produce delayed neutrons are called
precursors of delayed neutrons. The delayed neutrons again strikes other heavy nuclei to carry
on nuclear fission. Thus a nuclear chain reaction is initiated.

Basically the energy released in the whole process of the chain reaction is first converted into
thermal energy and then it is converted into mechanical energy or electrical energy according
to our need. The part of the nuclear reactor where the nuclear reaction takes place is called the
reactor core. In the reactor core we have fuel rods, control rods, moderator, coolant and steam
separator​[1]​.

Fuel rods are made of radioactive materials which undergoes nuclear fission such as
Uranium-235 or Uranium-238. The fuel rods are struck by thermal neutrons which causes the

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nuclear fission of the uranium nucleus into two fission products of lighter nuclei releasing
tremendous amount of energy. In the reactor core heat energy is obtained in three forms :

I. Kinetic energy of the fission products, which is then converted into thermal
energy when the fission products collide with other molecules
II. Heat is produced by absorption of gamma rays emitted during fission
III. Radioactive decay of the particles formed from nuclear fission

Fig. 1​ Schematic diagram of a Boiling Water Reactor (BWR)​[2]

Moderator : It is basically a medium which reduces the speed of fast moving

neutrons so that they can strike the uranium atoms properly and the nuclear chain
reaction is carried out efficiently. The most commonly used moderators are light water
(H​2​O), heavy water (D​2​O) and graphite.

Coolant : ​It is that medium in the reactor core which absorbs the heat energy
produced in the reactor core and transfer it to the turbines through pipes. Mostly water
is used as a coolant.

Steam separator : ​When the coolant absorbs the heat energy it gets converted into
steam and it rises up to reach the turbines. Now this steam before reaching the turbines
through the pipes is made to pass through steam separator. The steam separator
separates the wet steam from water molecules or any other particles that is present
with the steam and only pure dry steam passes through it.

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 Control rods : ​Control rods are used to control the rate of the chain reaction. It
absorbs the excess neutrons and thus preventing them from causing fission of the
uranium atoms. It also maintains the safety of the reactor. Mainly Boron-Carbide,
Silver or Cadmium is used as control rod materials.

Normally as the chain reaction proceeds the production of neutrons and the rate of the
reaction increases. But this needs to be controlled otherwise tremendous amount to energy
will be released and it will blast. For this the control rods are placed. If the rate of reaction or
the number of neutrons increases with time the reactor is in a supercritical state and is they
decrease the reactor is in subcritical state. If the rate of reaction and the number of neutrons
remains constant over time then the reactor is in a critical state. Initially the control rods are
removed and the chain reaction is initiated and after the reaction rate reaches a desired value
the control rods are inserted so that the reactor is in a critical state or simply a steady state.

The superheated steam generated from the reactor core is now moved to the turbine through
pipes. The steam rotates the turbine and the heat energy is converted into mechanical energy
which in turn is converted into electrical energy by generators. The steam coming out of the
turbine is then passed through a condenser where the steam is condensed to warm water. This
warm water with the help of a pump is supplied back to the pressure vessel and the reactor
core.

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Chapter 2

Literature Review
To understand the basic functioning of nuclear reactors and stability analysis I had gone
through some research papers. I am going to briefly discuss about them.

In a paper by Wahi and Kumawat​[3]​, stability analysis of reduced order model of a BWR near
the Hopf bifurcation point have been done. But the results demonstrated were that of
parameter values for AHWR model. For neutronics model, point reactor kinetic equations
were used. For thermal hydraulics of both fuel and coolant, one-node lumped parameter
model have been used. It was observed that AHWR model shows Hopf bifurcation resulting
in power oscillations when bifurcation parameter like void fraction coefficient and coolant
temperature coefficient was varied. My study was mainly focussed on this model.

Also March-Leuba in their paper​[4] developed a model to simulate the qualitative behavior of
BWRs in the nonlinear regime. When two unstable equilibrium points and phase-space
trajectories interact limit cycle oscillations appear. This happens only when linear stability
threshold is crossed. When feedback gain exceeds a certain critical value the limit cycle
becomes unstable.

In another paper on stability analysis of Natural Circulation Boiling Water Reactor

(NCBWR)​[5] using a lumped parameter model has been been discussed. Stability analysis of
three different systems has been done using that model. For one of the system configurations,
bifurcations have been studied for boiling channels. In both Type-I and Type-II regions, the
void reactivity coefficient effect was studied. Unstable limit cycle from subcritical Hopf
bifurcation and supercritical one from stable limit cycle have been found in the Type-I region.
In the Type-II region chaotic oscillations are observed in boiling channels for high reactivity
feedback.

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Chapter 3

Mathematical Modelling

3.1 Neutronics

To derive the neutronics equation we use the point-reactor model. For complete neutron
balance we have the neutron density depending upon time, position of the neutron in the
three-dimensional space, direction vector and the energy. To reduce complexity, we only
consider the time dependency and neglect all others

3.1.1 Neutronics Equation

The rate of change of neutron density at any instant is directly proportional to the neutron
density plus the delayed neutron density at that instant. Now the delayed neutron density is
equal to the decay constant of delayed neutron precursors times concentration of the delayed
neutron precursors. The neutron density has a coefficient which is equal to the ratio of the
difference between reactivity and delayed neutron fraction and the neutron generation time.
The equation is represented as (1)

dN (τ ) [ρ(τ )−β]
dτ
= Λ
N (τ ) + λ 1 C(τ ) (1)

where the symbols used are given in the list of symbols.

Also the rate of change of precursor concentration delayed neutrons is represented by

equation (2)
dC(τ ) β
dτ = Λ N (τ ) − λ 1 C(τ ) (2)

3.2 Thermal Hydraulics

Transfer of heat energy between the fuel rods and the coolant fluid is described here. Here we
consider one-node lumped parameter model, where a parameter is considered on the system
as a whole and an average value is taken. For two-node model, we take two different values
of the parameter. To minimise complications in the stability analysis we take one-node
model. So the temperature here is considered to be uniformly distributed over the coolant
fluid an the fuel rods. We assume that the temperature does not vary throughout the fuel rods
and the void volume of the coolant.

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The fuel rods as a lump have an average temperature ​T​f . The temperature of the coolant is
assumed to be at a steady state or saturation temperature (T​sat​). The change in temperature of
the fuel with reference to the saturation temperature of the saturation temperature of the
coolant is studied. The heat generated in fuel rods during fission is transferred to the
coolant fluid by the process of conduction inside the fuel rods and by convection in the
coolant fluid. The overall heat transfer coefficient is U. Similarly, the change in void volume
is considered with respect to a steady state void volume. Also we assume that a constant
power (P​0​) is being withdrawn by the coolant at steady state. Now the final equations
balancing the power of the fuel rods and the coolant are given by :

dT f (τ )
Cf dτ
= P (τ ) − U [T f (τ ) − T sat ] (3)

hf g dV (τ )
v g dτ
= U [T f (τ ) − T sat ] − P 0 (4)

where the symbols used are given in the list of symbols.

Now since the heat is transferred from the fuel rods to the coolant, the second term in the
right-hand side of (3) has a negative sign and (4) has a positive sign. The reactor power is
directly proportional to the number of neutrons and N​0​, the steady state neutron density being
the proportionality constant we have
N0
P (τ ) = P0 N (τ ) (5)

3.3 Reactivity Feedback :

Here we consider the change in reactivity of a nuclear reactor caused by the nuclear power
transients. Sometimes the reactor power change can be large enough to affect the reactivity of
a reactor and hence the reactor behaviour as a whole.

The reactivity feedback is affected by many factors. But we consider only two of them as
others factors does not have much of an impact on the reactivity. The factors taken into
consideration are fuel and moderator temperature and void fraction of the coolant.the
reactivity is assumed to be linearly dependent on the two factors. Hence the reactivity
feedback equation is given by :
V (τ )−V 0
ρ(τ ) = αf [T f (τ ) − T f 0 ] + αv [ V0 ] (6)

where the symbols used are given in the list of symbols.

9
Chapter 4

Results and Discussion

4.1 Stability Analysis

4.1.1 Nonlinearity in the equations

So far we see the five equations that describes the functioning of the nuclear reactor which
includes two equations from nuclear kinetics, two from thermal hydraulics and one from
reactivity feedback. Now when we substitute the reactivity feedback equation (6) in the first
reactor kinetics equation (1) we see nonlinearities which is the only nonlinearity source in our
work. Also we substitute the value of P (τ ) from equation (5) to equation (3). So the finally
we get four equations

dN (τ ) αf [T f (τ )−T f 0 ] V 0 + αv [V (τ )−V 0 ] − βV 0
dτ = ΛV0 N (τ ) + λ1 C(τ ) (7)

dC(τ ) β
dτ
= [ Λ N (τ ) − λ1 C(τ )] (8)

dT f (τ ) N0
Cf dτ
= P0
N (τ ) − U [T f (τ ) − T sat ] (9)

hf g dV (τ )
v g dτ
= U [T f (τ ) − T sat ] − P 0 (10)

Among the above four equations we see only (7) is nonlinear, rest are all linear.

4.1.2 Coupling of equations

We see that the reactivity feedback equation is basically not a differential equation. It is an
equation which is used for coupling of the neutronics and thermal hydraulics equations. We
can clearly see from equations (1) and (2) that they are coupled among themselves and
equations (3) and (4) are coupled among themselves. Only when the substitutions mentioned
in section 3.1.1 is done the neutron kinetics and thermal hydraulics gets coupled with each
other​.

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4.1.3 Non-dimensionalization of equations

It becomes easier to solve the equations when we substitute some dimensionless parameters
in place of the original parameters. This is known as non-dimensionalization. The variables
are made dimensionless when they are substituted are as follows :

N −N 0 P −P 0 C−C 0 T f −T f 0 V −V 0 βτ
x1 = N0 = P0 ; x2 = C0 ; x3 = T f 0 −T sat ; x4 = V0 ; t= Λ

Also for more simplification of the equations we substitute the following dimensionless
parameters :

ΛP 0 β ρV g P 0 λ1 Λ αf [T f 0 −T sat ] αv
p= C f (T f 0 −T sat ) ; q= hf g βV 0 ; b= β ; af = β ; av = β

In the last chapter it is mentioned that N​0​, C​0​, T​f0 and V​0 denote the steady state conditions of
the system variables that is neutron density, concentration of precursors of delayed neutrons,
fuel temperature and void volume of the coolant. Now N​0 and C​0 have any arbitrary values
depending upon various conditions and parameters. But T​f0 and V​0 have only specific values
depending on the following steady state conditions :

β P0
C0 = Λλ1 N 0 ; T f 0 = T sat + U

After non-dimensionalization and substitution of steady state conditions according to the

above equations, the following system of equations are obtained :

dx1
dt = −x1 (t) + x2 (t) + af x3 (t) + av x4 (t) + af x1 (t) x3 (t) + av x1 (t) x4 (t) (11)

dx2
dt = b[x1 (t) − x2 (t)] (12)

dx3
dt = p[x1 (t)−x3 (t)] (13)

dx4
dt = qx3 (t) (14)

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4.1.4 Linear Stability analysis

For analysis of nonlinear system first we analyze the linear stability. The source of
instabilities and dynamical behaviour of the system under small disturbances about a steady
state can also be determined. Linear stability analysis is done by nonlinear system
linearization about the desired equilibrium point or steady state. Since the equations are non
dimensionalized and parameters are substituted such that the steady state solution is zero, the
nonlinear system is linearized simply by excluding the nonlinear terms. So the linear system
of equations stands as :

dx1
dt
= −x1 (t) + x2 (t) + af x3 (t) + av x4 (t) (15)

dx2
dt = b[x1 (t) − x2 (t)] (16)

dx3
dt = p[x1 (t)−x3 (t)] (17)

dx4
dt
= qx3 (t)

(18)

Now after this is done, we have to study the dynamical behaviour of this linearized form
about the desired steady state and also the roots of the linearized system. To find the roots of
the system of equations, we denote the whole system in a single vectorial form as
[ dxdt = [A] x] , where ​x = ​[x​1 ,​ x​2 , x​3 , x​4 ]​T​. At equilibrium we have dx
dt
= 0 . So the eigenvalues
of [A] are the equilibrium solutions of the system and are used for the stability analysis. The
matrix [A] is as given below :

The system is stable only if all the roots of the equations lie on the left side of the complex
plane which means they have negative real parts. If any of the roots have a positive real part
the the system will be unstable. In the complex plane the path of the eigenvalues are
determined by changing the parameter values. Different types of bifurcations are observed
due to different movements of eigenvalues. When pair of complex conjugate roots cross the

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imaginary axis transversally Hopf bifurcations are observed. When the roots cross the
imaginary axis through the origin, pitch-fork or transcritical bifurcations are observed.

The characteristic equation of the matrix [A] is given |A − λI | = 0 and I is the identity matrix
of order 4. The simplified value of the above determinant is :

4 3 2
λ + λ (p + b + 1) + λ (bp + p − paf ) − λ(pqav + pbaf ) − pbqav = 0 (19)

Now to study Hopf bifurcation we substitute λ = j ω in equation (19), where j = √− 1 and

ω > 0 . Then by equating the real parts and imaginary parts to zero we get

ω 4 − ω 2 (p + bp − paf ) − pqbav = 0 (20)

ω 3 (1 + b + p) + ω (pqav + pbaf ) = 0 (21)

Solving the above equations we get the values of the parameters av and af to be

ω 2 (ω 2 +b2 −p+b) ω 2 (ω 2 p+ω 2 +b2 p+bp)

af = p(b2 +ω 2 )
and av = pq(b2 +ω 2 )

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Chapter 5

Conclusion

5.1 Present Work

A reduced order model has been demonstrated for a BWR leading to a system of equations.
There are three dynamic processes in a nuclear reactor : thermal hydraulics, neutronics and
reactivity feedback. Of these three only nonlinearity due to heat transfer processes were
ignored and reactivity feedback nonlinearity were considered. The reactivity feedback and
thermal hydraulics equations were coupled. Then the equations were nondimensionalized and
some parameters were introduced for our ease. The Jacobian matrix and characteristic
equations were obtained from the system equations. Then applying conditions of Hopf
bifurcations to the characteristic equation two parameter values namely fuel temperature
coefficient of reactivity (αf ) and coolant void coefficient of reactivity (αv ) are obtained.

These critical parameter values are that along the hopf bifurcation stability boundary. Any
change in these critical parameter values will make the fixed point loose stability via Hopf
bifurcation.

5.2 Future Work

This was all for my seminar work since there was time limitations. I have managed to gain a
lot of interest and some knowledge of stability analysis. In future for my project I would like
to know about pressure drop oscillations and density wave oscillations. Also I would like to
work more on instabilities and stability analysis of two phase flow for my research work

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Bibliography
[1] "Nuclear reactor." ​https://www.britannica.com/technology/nuclear-reactor​. Accessed
2 April. 2019.

[2]. https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/bwrs.html​. Accessed 2 April. 2019.

[3]. Wahi, P., & Kumawat, V. (2011). Nonlinear stability analysis of a reduced order
model of nuclear reactors: A parametric study relevant to the advanced heavy water reactor.
Nuclear Engineering and Design​, ​241​(1), 134-143.

[4]. March-Leuba, J., Cacuci, D. G., & Perez, R. B. (1986). Nonlinear dynamics and
stability of boiling water reactors: part 1—qualitative analysis. ​Nuclear Science and
Engineering​, ​93​(2), 111-123.

[5]. Prasad, G. D., & Pandey, M. (2008). Stability analysis and nonlinear dynamics of
natural circulation boiling water reactors. ​Nuclear Engineering and Design,​ ​238(​ 1), 229-240.

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