Sharif Digital Repository

Sensors are one of the most vital instruments in Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs), and operators and safety systems monitor and analyze various parameters reported by them. Failure to detect sensors malfunctions or anomalies would lead to the considerable consequences. In this research, a new method based on thermal–hydraulic simulation by RELAP5 code and Feed-Forward Neural Networks (FFNN) is introduced to detect faulty sensors and estimate their correct value. For design an efficient neural net, seven feature selectors (i.e., Information gain, ReliefF, F-regression, mRMR, Plus-L Minus-R, GA, and PSO), three sigmoid activation functions (i.e., Logistic, Tanh and Elliot), and three training... 

In this paper, some important operating parameters of nuclear power plants (NPPs) transients are forecasted using different supervised learning methods including feed-forward back propagation (FFBP) neural networks such as cascade feed-forward neural network (CFFNN), statistical methods such as support vector regression (SVR), and localized networks such as radial basis network (RBN). Different learning algorithms, including gradient descent (GD), gradient descent with momentum (GDM), scaled conjugate gradient (SCG), Levenberg-Marquardt (LM), and Bayesian regularization (BR) are used in CFFNN method. SVR method is used with different kernel functions including Gaussian, polynomial, and... 

The field of any point source which is broadened equally in all directions without any limitation to its range is within category of the inverse square law (ISL). As a case study, the dose equivalent (DE) rate is calculated. For calculating the DE rate, the radiation source can be divided into multiple layers and each layer is fractionated to multiple rectangular surfaces. Each rectangular surface can be replaced with three types of sectors. The DE rate of a source on a target is then sum of DE rates of sectors. The developed method is independent of the target position relative to the source and is used for the dose calculation of any arbitrary arrangement of source and target. As an... 

In this paper, an analytical method for calculation of the dose equivalent (DE) of coordinate surfaces of the Cartesian geometry is presented. DE of rectangular surfaces of gamma radiation emitters is calculated. The developed analytical method changes rectangular surface to multiple polar regions by dividing its surface into four types of sectors. By this method, the calculation of the dose is converted into calculation of simple mathematical series. The dose of rectangular shape sources for different gamma radiation emitters at different distances to target is calculated and the results are compared with MCNP code. Results show very good agreement. Advantages of the developed method are:... 

Multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural networks have been used extensively for estimation/regression of parameters. Moreover, recent studies have shown that learning algorithms of MLP which are based on Gaussian function are more accurate. In this paper, the mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) of gamma radiation for light-weight materials (e.g. O-8), mid-weight materials (e.g. Al-13), and heavy-weight materials (e.g. Pb-82) is modelled using Gaussian function based regularization of MLP (i.e. Bayesian regularization (BR)) and by a modular estimator. The results are compared with the Reference results. To show better performance of the utilized algorithm, the results of the different supervised... 

In this paper, a novel idea is developed to construct energy spectrum of inorganic scintillator detector (e.g. NaI(Tl)) using energy spectrum of organic scintillator detector (e.g. NE102) by means of a model-free method. For this purpose, support vector machine (SVM) accompanied with different kernel functions (i.e. linear, polynomial, and Gaussian) is applied. The spectra of NE102 and NaI(Tl) detectors of the single radioisotopes (i.e. Co60, Cs137, Na22, and Am241) are utilized for training of SVM. In other words, data of NE102 detector are input spectrums of training patterns and data of NaI(Tl) detector are target spectrums of training patterns. To construct an appropriate mapping... 

The motivation of this study is development of a technique to construct energy spectrum of higher price/high resolution detectors (e.g. NaI (Tl)) using spectrum of lower price/low resolution detectors (e.g. NE102). Since there is no explicit mathematical model between these type of detectors (i.e. organic and inorganic scintillator detectors), it is necessary to utilize model-free methods. Construction of mapping function to generate spectrum of inorganic scintillator using spectrum of organic scintillator can be done by supervised model-free methods. Different supervised learning methods including localized neural networks, statistical methods, feed-forward neural networks, and conditional... 

In this paper cross-correlation of measurable/unmeasurable parameters of nuclear power plants (NPPs) are detected. Correlation techniques including Pearson's, Spearman's, and Kendall-tau give appropriate input parameters for training/prediction of the target unmeasurable parameters. Fuel and clad maximum temperatures of uncontrolled withdrawal of control rods (UWCR) transient of Bushehr nuclear power plant (BNPP) are used as the case study target parameters. Different model-free methods including decision tree (DT), feed-forward back propagation neural network (FFBPNN) accompany with different learning algorithms (i.e. gradient descent with momentum (GDM), scaled conjugate gradient (SCG),... 

In this study, the estimation of the uranium price as one of the most important factors affecting the fuel cost of nuclear power plants (NPPs) is investigated. Supervised learning algorithms, especially, multilayer feed-forward neural network (FFNN) are used extensively for parameters estimation. Similar to other supervised methods, FFNN can suffer from overfitting (i.e. imbalance between memorization and generalization). In this study, different regularization techniques of FFNN are discussed and the most appropriate regularization technique (i.e. Bayesian regularization) is selected for estimation of the uranium price. The different methods including different learning algorithms of FFNN,... 

In this study, accurate estimation of nuclear power plant (NPP) parameters is done using the new and simple technique. The proposed technique using the genetic algorithm (GA) in combination with the Bayesian regularization (BR) and Levenberg- Marquardt (LM) learning algorithms identifies the appropriate architecture for estimation of the target parameters. In the first step, the input patterns features are selected using the features selection (FS) technique. In the second step, the appropriate number of hidden neurons and hidden layers are investigated to provide a more efficient initial population of the architectures. In the third step, the estimation of the target parameter is done using... 

Several reasons such as no free lunch theorem indicates that any learning algorithm in combination with a specific feature selection (FS) technique may give more accurate estimation than other learning algorithms. Therefore, there is not a universal approach that outperforms other algorithms. Moreover, due to the large number of FS techniques, some recommended solutions such as using synthetic dataset or combining different FS techniques are very tedious and time consuming. In this study to tackle the issue of more accurate estimation of NPPs parameters, the performance of the major supervised learning algorithms in combination with the different FS techniques which are appropriate for... 

Several reasons such as no free lunch theorem indicate that there is not a universal Feature selection (FS) technique that outperforms other ones. Moreover, some approaches such as using synthetic dataset, in presence of large number of FS techniques, are very tedious and time consuming task. In this study to tackle the issue of dependency of estimation accuracy on the selected FS technique, a methodology based on the heterogeneous ensemble is proposed. The performance of the major learning algorithms of neural network (i.e. the FFNN-BR, the FFNN-LM) in combination with the diverse FS techniques (i.e. the NCA, the F-test, the Kendall's tau, the Pearson, the Spearman, and the Relief) and... 

Challenges, especially, identification of correlation of attenuation coefficients at high/low energy X-ray, stochastic noise on images, source energy fluctuation, and angular drop-off of X-ray energy/dose rate affect the quality of the material discrimination using dual-energy X-ray radiography. In this study, a new approach using radial basis network (RBN) is applied for the identification of materials. A modular structure, in which each module is responsible for the identification of a single material-thickness is developed. Each module with its specific RBN not only is trained to identify its own material-thickness but also is trained to reject the other ones. The activation/radial... 

Accidents that occur at NPPs must be correctly identified so quickly that mitigation actions can be taken in a timely manner. Depending on the type of transient, the operating parameters follow different patterns and it might be possible to identify the transient by monitoring these parameters. Due to the large number of parameters of an NPP, it is necessary to determine the parameters that play a vital role in transient identification. Data-driven methods have shown effective performance for NPP transient identification. To determine the most important input parameters for NPP transient identification, the present paper has utilized a hybrid feature selection method, in which feature... 

This study introduces a new identifier for nuclear power plants (NPPs) transients. The proposed identifier changes the representation of input patterns. Change of representation is a semi-supervised learning algorithm which employs both of labeled and unlabeled input data. In the first step, modified self-organizing map (MSOM) carries out an unsupervised learning algorithm on labeled and unlabeled patterns and generates a new metric for input data. In the second step, support vector machine (SVM) as a supervised learning algorithm classifies the input patterns using the generated metric of the first step. In contrast to unsupervised learning algorithms, the proposed identifier does not... 

In this study, we propose a new method for identification of nuclear power plants (NPPs) transients based on online dynamic quantum clustering (DQC). In this unsupervised learning algorithm, the Gaussian kernel is the eigen-state of the Schrödinger equation and the minimums of the Schrödinger potential are the cluster centers of patterns. For clustering of transients, data of each event are given to the DQC and form a cluster independent of other transients. This process is done for all target plant conditions. The formed clusters are labeled according to the name of their related transients. Afterwards, to test the proposed identifier, as time goes by, new data points move toward the formed... 

Precise modelling of the interaction of ions with materials is important for many applications including material characterization, ion implantation in devices, thermonuclear fusion, hadron therapy, secondary particle production (e.g. neutron), etc. In this study, a new approach using the Geant4 toolkit in combination with the Bayesian regularization (BR) learning algorithm of the feed-forward neural network (FFNN) is developed to estimate the range of ions in materials accurately and quickly. The different incident ions at different energies are interacted with the target materials. The Geant4 is utilized to model the interactions and to calculate the range of the ions. Afterward, the... 

Steam/water stratified flow would occur in transient condition (e.g. LOCA) in light water Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). Due to high gradient of flow characteristics at the interface of steam/water flow, the prediction of flow characteristics (e.g. temperature, pressure, velocity, and Turbulent Kinetic Energy (TKE)) requires further attention and special interfacial models. Also, accurate simulation of these mentioned characteristics needs fine spatial mesh and very small time steps based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) standard criteria. In order to reduce the computational cost, the combination of thermal–hydraulic modelling and soft computing is considered as a new strategy in this... 

This study introduces a new method for forecasting future states of nuclear power plants (NPPs) parameters in abnormal conditions (i.e. transients). The proposed method consists of two steps. First, the type of transients is recognized by the modular EBP based identifier. A hybrid network is then used to forecast the selected parameters of the identified transient. ARIMA model is used to estimate the linear component of the selected parameters. The neural network developed by EBP learning algorithm is then used to estimate the nonlinear component of the selected parameters. Finally, prediction of parameters is obtained by adding the estimated linear and nonlinear components. To analyze the... 

This study introduces a novel identification method for recognition of nuclear power plants (NPPs) transients by combining the autoregressive integrated moving-average (ARIMA) model and the neural network with error back-propagation (EBP) learning algorithm. The proposed method consists of three steps. First, an EBP based identifier is adopted to distinguish the plant normal states from the faulty ones. In the second step, ARIMA models use integrated (I) process to convert non-stationary data of the selected variables into stationary ones. Subsequently, ARIMA processes, including autoregressive (AR), moving-average (MA), or autoregressive moving-average (ARMA) are used to forecast time...