Optimal Sampling Period of the Digital Control System for the Nuclear Power Plant Steam Generator water Level Control

Abstract

A great effort has been made to improve the nuclear plant control system by use of digital technologies, and a long term schedule for the control system upgrade has been prepared with an aim to implementation in the next generation nuclear plane. In case of digital control system, it is important to decide the sampling period for analysis and design of the system, because the performance and the stability of a digital control system depend on the value of the sampling period of the digital control system. There is, however, currently no systematic method used universally for determining the sampling period of the digital control system. Generally, a traditional way to select the sampling frequency is to use 20 to 30 times the bandwidth of the analog control system which has the same system configuration and parameters as the digital one. In this paper, a new method to select the sampling period is suggested which takes into account of the performance as well as the stability of the digital control system. By use of the fryings model of steam generator, the optimal sampling period of an assumptive digital control system for steam generator level control is estimated and is actually verified in the digital control simulation system for KORI-2 nuclear power plant steam generator level control. Consequently, we conclude the optimal sampling period of the digital control system for KORI-2 nuclear power plant steam generator level control is 1 second for all power ranges.