Parallel Genetic Algorithm for Fuel Bundle Burnup Optimization of Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor

Forfattere

  • Ramachandran S Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, India
  • Jayalal M. L. Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, India
  • Jehadeesan R. Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, India
  • Madhusoodanan K. Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, India

Resumé

In this study, parallel genetic algorithm (GA) was applied to solve an optimization problem of nuclear fuel management pertaining to a 220 MWe pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR). The study aims at finding appropriate values of reference discharge burnups of two zones of the reactor core which gives maximum fuel economy, while satisfying operational and safety-related constraints. This is a multiobjective optimization problem with four objectives and four constraints. Penalty functions-based GA methodology was employed to convert the multi-objective optimization problem to an unconstrained optimization problem by defining a penalty function. Master–slave parallelization method was used to parallelize the GA in order to reduce the computational time by exploring the capabilities of high performance computing cluster. This approach used a single population and evaluation of the individuals of the population was carried out in parallel. In this study, we have run the parallel program by varying the number of CPU cores (processes) and obtained significant performance improvement.   Keywords: parallel genetic algorithm (GA), master–slave GA, nuclear fuel management, Indian PHWR, high performance computing  Cite this Article Ramachandran S, Jayalal ML, Jehadeesan R et al. Parallel Genetic Algorithm for Fuel Bundle Burnup Optimization of Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor. Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Technology. 2016; 6(1): 11–24p.

Forfatterbiografier

  • Ramachandran S, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, India
    Suja Ramachandran received her B.Tech  in Computer Science & Engineering from Calicut University, India in 2006 and M.Tech in Computer Engineering from Homi Bhabha National Institute, India in 2009. She is currently working as Scientific Officer at Electronics, Instrumentation and Radiological Safety Group (EIRSG), Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), India. Her research interests include high performance computing, computational intelligence, database systems and web development.
  • Jayalal M. L., Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, India
    M.L. Jayalal received his BE in Computer Science and Engineering from Madras University, India, in 1998. At present, he is Scientific Officer at Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR, India). Recently, he has submitted his PhD thesis (Homi Bhaba National University, Mumbai, India) on the applications of genetic algorithm in nuclear reactor subsystems. His research interests are intelligent optimization algorithms and their applications in nuclear reactor environment.
  • Jehadeesan R., Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, India
    R.Jehadeesan obtained his engineering graduation in Computer Science and Engineering from Madras  University and completed M.S (Software  Systems) in BITS, Pilani. He is pursuing PhD under Homi Bhaba National University, India in the field of High-Performance Computing. He joined Department of Atomic Energy - Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research in 1996 as Scientific Officer and currently heading Knowledge  Management Section and Computing Systems Section. He has expertise in  designing,  building and managing high-performance scientific computing facility, Computing Grid and development of Simulator, ANN based CI models for nuclear reactor applications and Organizational Knowledge Management System. His research interests are Computational Intelligence, Cluster/Grid Computing, Cryptography and Knowledge Discovery & Data  Mining
  • Madhusoodanan K., Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, India
    K Madhusoodanan was born in Kerala, India in 1957 and graduated in electrical engineering from Regional Engineering College, Calicut, India in 1979. He underwent one year post-graduate training in Nuclear Engineering at BARC, Mumbai. He had been responsible for installation and commissioning of Instrumentation & Control systems of Fast Breeder Test Reactor at Kalpakkam. Presently, he is Associate Director of the group responsible for design and development of I&C systems of Prototype fast Breeder reactor being constructed. He is responsible for the design of I&C systems for FBRs being planned in the near future.

Publiceret

2016-03-01

Nummer

Sektion

Research Papers