An intelligent approach for thermal-hydraulic studies on safety and efficiency of nuclear power plant

An effective identification of breakdowns is of premier importance for the safe and reliable operation of Nuclear Power Plants (NPP). The potential consequences of several terrorized activities may harm the society using nuclear and its associated facilities by using faulty components. Subsequently, rigorous nuclear reactor thermal-hydraulic experimental events support design improvement which are important vectors to be considered in nuclear safety measures. To challenge this problem, a number of linear and nonlinear pattern recognition methods have been utilized. Therefore, the aim of the present work is to study the application of fuzzy expert system (FES) model on a complex system such as nuclear reactor thermal-hydraulic system and their adaptation for the early forecast of irregular behaviour. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between reactor design parameters, in particular safety function areas of heat removal capability, conductivity of cladding, convective heat transfer characteristics of coolant and their impact of severity, and to illustrate how fuzzy expert system might play an important role in assessment of risk. Several simulation cases are conducted for evaluating the performance of the present diagnosis system. The simulation results show the good performance of the present intelligent approach in thermal-hydraulic studies on safety and efficiency of NPP. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.