The 2nd International Conference on Computer Application and System Modeling (2012)

Mathematical Modeling and Simulation of Pressurizer Pressure Control System

Ma Jin1,2,3, Chan Afang2, Lv Lixia2

1. School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiao tong university,710049, Xi’an China
2. North China Electric Power University, Sch. of Control & Comput. Eng. Baoding, 071003, China
3. Baoding Sinosimu Technology Co.Ltd, 071051, Baoding,china

Abstract-The data of pressurizer dynamic characteristics was

obtained by the test on simulator. The test included II. MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF PRESSURIZER WITH
disturbances of spray valve and electric heater power. The PRESSURE CHANGE
transfer function of the pressurizer pressure was established Usually,there are tow methods to establish
upon the data. The control system was simulated by the use of
mathematical model, for one, the model is derived
Simulink simulation package. The simulation result shows that
the pressurizer model and its pressure control system are
according to the structured data of system and fundamental
correct and have the reasonable dynamic trend. The theorem, conservation of matter, energy conservation and
pressurizer model can be used on other research. equation of continuity, this method is called mechanism
model or analytical model; another is called system
Keywords-Pressurizer ， Pressure control system ， Transfer identification to describe SISO linear system with transfer
function，Simulation function [7], established by the data of systems operation.
Besides, the nuclear power unit model can be established
upon numerical calculation program Relap5 [8].
I. INTRODUCTION In this paper, some curves were obtained by simulation
The pressurizer is one of the primary equipments in test in 900MW PWR nuclear power plant simulator; the
primary loop of the PWR nuclear power plant; its dynamic mathematical models of pressurizer pressure change were
characteristic has been researched since the 1960s. The early established by studying the two channels, proportional
supposed model was equilibrium state model, simple heater and proportional spray.
calculation, but inapplicability to rapid change transient. The system was set in full load conditions in plant
Redfield and Margolis [1] 、 Baron and Abdallah [2] original rational simulator, the Initial system parameters see
proposed the two-area nonequilibrium model which exposed Table.1
its shortcomings due to the existence of stratification after
super-cooled water entered pressurizer while positive
fluctuation. Baggour、Martin and Baek proposed the three- A. Transfer function of sprinkler valve control channel
area nonequilibrium model [3]. The model divides liquid The spray valve opening was changed from 0% to 5%
water area into main water area and wave water area, and it when all switches were set to M (manual), the pressure
can reflects stratification, but the wave water area, devoid of curve was shown in Figure 1
meaning, the selection for initial volume has certain
arbitrariness. Besides, it is hard to determine the partition
coefficients which have great effect on the model accuracy.
You Hong-jun and others proposed the multi-areas
nonequilibrium model[4], where the volume was used as
state variable instead of the quality, and the whole water
area was used as the only volume state variables,
eliminating redundancy state variable maximum, enhancing
the efficiency and stability of solving the model. Reference
Figure 1. Spray valve opening’s test curve
[5] made some simulations on working and control process
of the pressurizer pressure control system, and Reference [6]
studied the steady-state and dynamic properties for the step According to the curve data, the transfer function of
change ± 3 ℃ in the coolant average temperature and controlled object was got, its input was spray valve opening
external load ± 10% step change in voltage rated power , but and the output was pressurizer pressure:
the pressurizer transfer function of the mathematical model 0.92
is not mentioned. G ( s) = − (1)
460s
The purpose of this paper is to use system identification
The step response curve was obtained according to the
methods to get the transfer functions of pressurizer pressure
control system, and then make simulations for its dynamic transfer function (1) as shown in Figure 2, the coordinates
characteristics. were listed in Table 2 with the coordinates corresponding
experimental step response curve.

Published by Atlantis Press, Paris, France.

© the authors
0362
 The 2nd International Conference on Computer Application and System Modeling (2012)

is the difference between the pressure measurement signal P

and the pressure setting Pref. The pressure conditioning
regulator signal ,known as the compensation differential
pressure △ PC, is gained by using PID regulator which
adjusted deviation Δ P. The signal △ PC is sent to four
adjustment channels,which are proportional heater,
proportional spray, on-off heater and power pressure relief
Figure 2. Calculated curve for step response of spray valve valve. The four channels take actions by a certain pressure
deviation signal [9]. The pressurizer pressure control
characteristics are shown in Figure 6
B. Transfer function of electric heater control channel
The power of electric heater increased by 130KW
when all switches were set to M (manual), the pressure
curve was shown in Figure 3.

Figure 5. Functional block diagram of pressurizer pressure control system

Figure 3. Electric heater’s test curve

The transfer function of controlled object was obtained Figure 6. Pressure control properties of pressurizer
by calculation. Its input was power of electric heat and the
output was pressurizer pressure: The electric heater is started when the pressure is low,
0.02308 then the pressurizer water is heated to vaporize which leads
G ( s) = (2) the pressure rises; If the pressure is high, the spray valve
748s opens, the spray water is sprayed into the pressurizer so that
The step response curve was got according to the the steam condenses, temperature decreases, the pressure
transfer function (2) and shown in Figure 4. The coordinates also falls, the pressurizer pressure is maintained constant,
were listed in Table 3 with the coordinates corresponding thus the primary loop pressure constant.
test step response curve. The module diagram of the pressurizer pressure control
system was constructed in Simulink and shown in Figure 7
according to the Figure 6 and the transfer function from the
preceding context. In the module, if t = 2500s, r (t) = 2; else
if t = 4000s, r (t) 1 =-2.
The simulation result was shown in Figure 8 From the
changed pressure curve and pressure output curve we can
see, 2500s~ 4000s, under the r(t) ,the pressure change value
can quickly track to the set value, and there are no
Figure 4. Calculated curve for step response of electric heater deviations. After 4000s ， under the r(t)1, the pressure
change value can still track to the setpoint.
The table 2 and table 3 showed that, the transfer
functions we got were consistent with test data.
III. PRESSURIZER PRESSURE DYNAMIC
CHARACTERISTIC'S SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS
The main function of the pressurizer pressure control
system is to keep pressure at its setpoint 155 bar, so that
emergency shut-down will not appeare at normal transient,
nor will the safety valve work. Figure 8. Response curves of the pressurizer pressure control system
The principle block diagram pressurizer pressure
control system is shown in Figure 5, the system is a single
parameter, multi-channel control system. The deviation Δ P

Published by Atlantis Press, Paris, France.

© the authors
0363
 The 2nd International Conference on Computer Application and System Modeling (2012)

A. Spray valve control the proportional heater and the on-off heater worked at the
According to the Figure 6 and the transfer function of same time, the power was 1440KW. At 100s the △PC>-1,
the spraying control channel, the module diagram was then the electric heater closed, by this time electric heater
constructed as shown in Figure 9 power was 480KW. Between the 100s and 500s, the
proportional heater worked until the △PC reached to 1.
Follow on, constant disturbance was added so that the
1) The PRESSURE SETPOINT disturbance
set pressure increased by 2bar. The proportional heater
At t = 100s the constant disturbance r (t) was added,
then the differential pressure began to change gradually, and worked so that the P increased, △PC dwindled, the heater
the valve opened wider, the P gradually decreased along power slowly decreased and pressure eventually stabilized.
with this the differential pressure decreased. According to The simulation process was shown in Figure 13
pressurizer pressure control features, the valve opened for
smaller, finally the pressure tended to stability. The
simulation result was shown in Figure 10

Figure 13. Output curves of actuator and pressure when set point disturbs
Figure 10. Output curves of actuator and pressure when set point disturbs

2)Electric heater power disturbance experiment

Between 0s and 500s, the process was the same as the
constant disturbance. At 500s the measurement disturbances
was added so that the input power of transfer function
decreased by 300KW. This moment the P decreased and the
electric heater began to work, then the heating power
Figure 11. Output curves of actuator and pressure when spray valve’s
increased so that the P increased too, because the △ PC
disturbs decreased the heating power also decreased , and finally the
P stabilized at set pressure 155bar. The simulation process
was shown in Figure 14
2) Spray valve opening disturbance experiment
The initial pressure was 155bar. At t = 100s the spray
valve opening disturbance was added, then the P increased,
△ PC changed, the valve began to work when the △ PC
increased to 1.7, the pressure P decreased, along with
smaller pressure the valve opened for smaller until the
pressure stabilized at set point. The simulation result was
shown in Figure 11
Figure 14. Output curves of actuator and pressure when electric heater
power decreases by 300KW
B. Electric heater control From all above, when the set pressure changed, the
The pressurizer electric heater has 60 heating tubes, pressure of pressurizer control system can rapidly track to
each is 24KW, divided into 6 groups, the two are the setpoint; it proved that the model has better performance
proportional, and the other four are on-off style. According characteristics.
to the pressurizer pressure control features and the transfer
function (2), the system block diagram was set up as Figure IV. SUMMARIES
12 According to the experimental data of Nuclear Power
Plant Simulator, we established the spray valve channel and
the electric heater channel transfer functions of pressurizer
1)The given value disturbance system. On this basis, a pressurizer pressure control system
According to the control characteristics of electric was established upon Simulink; the disturbance experiments
heater, the initial value of the transfer function was set at were performed such as setting value disturbance, spray
150bar and the Pref was 155bar. At the beginning, △PC<-1, valve opening disturbance experiments etc. The results

Published by Atlantis Press, Paris, France.

© the authors
0364
 The 2nd International Conference on Computer Application and System Modeling (2012)

show that the pressure control system of pressurizer is [4] YOU Hong-jun; CUI Zhen-hua; CHENG Yi-ping. A Nonequilibrium
correct and has the reasonable dynamic trend. Above all, Multi-region Model for Nuclear Power Pressurizer, Nuclear Power
Engineering [J], 2001，22(4): 133 - 137.
this paper made the mathematic models of controlled
[5] DENG Chen; ZHANG Qin-shun. Simulation Research of Pressure
objects on the pressurizer pressure control system in order to Control System for Nuclear Reactor Pressurizer Based on Labview,
offer effective references to further researches on this issue. Microcomputer Applications [J], 2007，9(28):961 - 964.
[6] ZHOU Fa-qing; ZHANG Qin-shun. Dynamic Characteristics Research
REFERENCES of Pressurizer Control System and PID Parameters Setting, Nuclear
[1] Redfield J A. Pressurizer Performance During Loss of Load at Power Engineering [J], 1993，8(14): 355 - 360.
Shippingport: Analysis and Test. Nuclear Application[J], 1986, PP4- [7] WU Guang-yu. System Identification and Adaptive Control. Harbin:
173. Harbin Institute of Technology Press, 1987
[2] BaronR.C. Digital Simulation of a N uclear Pressurizer. Nuclear [8] LIN Meng; SU Yun; HU Rui; YANG Yan-hua. Modeling by RELAP5
Science and Engineering[J], 1982, PP73-447. in Nuclear Power Plant Engineering Simulator, Atomic Energy
[3] Senng Min Baek, Hee Cheon No. A Nonequilibnum Three-Region Science and Technology [J], 2005，39(5): 429 – 432.
Model for Transient Analysis of pressurized Water Reactor [9] ZHANG Jian-ming. Nuclear Reactor Control, Atomic Energy Press,
Pressurizer, Nuclear Technology [J], 1986, PP74-260. 2009.

TABLE I. INITIAL DATA OF THE SYSTEM

Pele LSG PSG TSG
Tave Lpzr P
Pth(MW) (MW) (%) (b) (
(℃) (%) (bar)
℃)
2775 304 63.1 155.1 925 44.0 55 270.1

TABLEII. TEST AND CALCULATED VALUE FOR STEP RESPONSE OF SPRAY VALVE

0(s) 100(s) 185(s) 254(s) 293(s) 402(s)

Test value 0 0.2 0.39 0.546 0.63 0.87
Calculated value 0 0.215 0.4 0.55 0.63 0.87

Figure 7. Simulation module diagram of the pressurizer pressure control system

Published by Atlantis Press, Paris, France.

© the authors
0365
 The 2nd International Conference on Computer Application and System Modeling (2012)

Figure 9. Simulation module diagram when spray controls

Figure 12. Simulation module diagram when electric heater controls

TABLE III. TEST AND CALCULATED VALUE FOR STEP RESPONSE OF ELECTRIC HEATER

0(s) 100(s) 295(s) 414(s) 481(s) 651(s)

Test value 0 0.117 0.39 0.549 0.63 0.862

Calculated value 0 0.132 0.394 0.55 0.64 0.87

Published by Atlantis Press, Paris, France.

© the authors
0366