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Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems

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ArticleOpen Access http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jepes.2025.12.001

Analysis and Control of the Pressurized Water Nuclear Reactor Model

Lakshmi N. Sridhar

Chemical Engineering Department, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, PR 00681, Puerto Rico.

*Corresponding author: Lakshmi N. Sridhar

Published: December 2,2025

Abstract

The nuclear materials produced by pressurized water nuclear reactors are vital for advanced cancer treatments, particularly through the creation of radioisotopes. The dynamics of the PWR are very complex and nonlinear, and it is important to understand the nonlinearity and develop effective control mechanisms. In this work, bifurcation analysis and multiobjective nonlinear model predictive control are performed on the pressurized water nuclear reactor model. Bifurcation analysis is a powerful mathematical tool used to deal with the nonlinear dynamics of any process. Several factors must be considered, and multiple objectives must be met simultaneously. The MATLAB program MATCONT was used to perform the bifurcation analysis. The MNLMPC calculations were performed using the optimization language PYOMO in conjunction with the state-of-the-art global optimization solvers IPOPT and BARON. The bifurcation analysis revealed the existence of Hopf bifurcation points, limit points, and branch points. The MNLMC converged on the Utopian solution. The Hopf bifurcation point, which causes an unwanted limit cycle, is eliminated using an activation factor involving the tanh function. The limit and branch points (which cause multiple steady-state solutions from a singular point) are very beneficial because they enable the Multiobjective nonlinear model predictive control calculations to converge to the Utopia point (the best possible solution) in the model.

Keywords

Cancer; Tumor; Bifurcation; Optimization; Control; Pressurized water nuclear reactor

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How to cite this paper

Analysis and Control of the Pressurized Water Nuclear Reactor Model

How to cite this paper: Lakshmi N. Sridhar. (2025) Analysis and Control of the Pressurized Water Nuclear Reactor Model. Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems9(2), 51-62.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jepes.2025.12.001