Statistical testing of temperature fluctuations for estimating thermal power in central subassembly of fast reactor

This paper reports results on the use of various statistical tests for studying the characteristic of temperature fluctuations in central subassembly of the core in a fast breeder test reactor. These tests are useful in establishing a correlation between core thermal power and fluctuations. Tests such as KPSS, Reverse Arrangement Test and runs test are used here to quantify the stochasticity of temperature fluctuations. The use of Approximate Entropy (ApEn) is also highlighted as a measure of complexity. Finally, a model is proposed on the basis of findings of above tests to establish the correlation. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.