GPU-Accelerated Real-Time Digital Twin with Divergence Detection for Control of Land-Based Nuclear Reactors

A method for real-time thermal-hydraulic simulation and power control of a land-based pressurized water reactor, the method comprising:

• (a) receiving, at a GPU computing device, current reactor state data including fuel pin temperature distributions, neutron precursor concentrations, and coolant conditions;
• (b) selecting, from a stored library of at least sixteen cladding material configurations, temperature-dependent thermal properties for each fuel pin based on the cladding material installed in each fuel pin position;
• (c) computing, on the GPU computing device using a Crank-Nicolson temporal discretization with Thomas algorithm tridiagonal solver, updated radial temperature profiles for each of a plurality of fuel pins simultaneously in parallel, including temperatures in a fuel pellet region, a gas gap region, and a cladding region;
• (d) computing, on the GPU computing device, updated reactor power using six-group delayed neutron kinetics with Doppler temperature reactivity feedback and moderator temperature reactivity feedback;
• (e) computing, on the GPU computing device, convective heat transfer coefficients between the fuel pins and pressurized water coolant with mixing vane grid spacer enhancement;
• (f) evaluating, on the GPU computing device, departure from nucleate boiling ratio using a W-3 correlation to confirm adequate thermal margins;
• (g) determining, by a closed-loop controller on the GPU computing device, adjusted control signals for at least one of reactor power and coolant flow rate based on a difference between a computed core outlet temperature and a target outlet temperature;
• and
• (h) outputting the adjusted control signals to reactor control systems,
• wherein steps (a) through (h) are completed within a p95 latency of less than 10 milliseconds.

A GPU computing system for real-time monitoring, control, and predictive safety assessment of a land-based nuclear power plant, the system comprising:

• (a) a GPU processor;
• (b) a non-transitory memory storing a digital twin model of the nuclear power plant, the digital twin model comprising a Crank-Nicolson plus Thomas algorithm thermal solver, a six-group delayed neutron kinetics solver with Doppler and moderator temperature reactivity feedback, a multi-material cladding property library supporting at least sixteen cladding configurations, a loss-of-coolant accident transient module, a reactivity-insertion accident transient module, and a closed-loop power controller;
• (c) sensor input interfaces receiving reactor instrumentation data including temperature, neutron flux, coolant flow, and pressure measurements;
• and
• (d) actuator output interfaces transmitting control commands to control rod drive mechanisms and coolant flow control systems,
• wherein the system achieves real-time simulation and control with p95 latency below 10 milliseconds per time step.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a GPU processor, cause the GPU processor to perform a method for GPU-accelerated land-based nuclear reactor digital twin simulation and control, the method comprising:

• (a) allocating GPU memory for radial temperature arrays for each of a plurality of fuel pins across fuel pellet, gas gap, and cladding regions, and for six delayed neutron precursor group concentrations;
• (b) for each simulation time step, computing in parallel across all fuel pins updated radial temperature profiles using a Crank-Nicolson discretization solved by a Thomas algorithm, with temperature-dependent material properties selected from a library of at least sixteen cladding material configurations;
• (c) computing updated reactor power using six-group point kinetics with Doppler and moderator temperature reactivity feedback;
• (d) computing departure from nucleate boiling ratio using a W-3 correlation with mixing vane grid spacer enhancement;
• (e) computing a control output for reactor power adjustment using a proportional-integral controller based on core outlet temperature;
• and
• (f) evaluating at least one of a loss-of-coolant accident transient and a reactivity-insertion accident transient to verify compliance with 10 CFR 50.46 acceptance criteria and NRC fuel enthalpy limits.