Application of the MOAA for the optimization of CORAIL assemblies for nuclear reactors

Author

Lattarulo, Valerio ; Lindleya, Benjamin A. ; Parks, Geoffrey T.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Eng., Univ. of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

fYear

2014

fDate

6-11 July 2014

Firstpage

1413

Lastpage

1420

Abstract

The Multi-objective Alliance Algorithm (MOAA), a recently introduced optimization algorithm, is used for the optimization of heterogeneous low-enriched uranium (LEU) + mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) assemblies for pressurized water reactors (PWRs). This is a constrained nuclear problem with two objectives and a mixed-integer solution space. The efficacy of the algorithm is demonstrated through comparisons with NSGA-II for between 300 and 2000 function evaluations. Through the epsilon and hypervolume indicators and the Kruskal-Wallis statistical test, we show that the MOAA outperforms NSGA-II on this problem. The MOAA was also able to find a set of solutions that are better than the `expert solution´ for this problem.

Keywords

fission reactor fuel; light water reactors; optimisation; CORAIL assembly optimization algorithm; Kruskal-Wallis statistical test; MOAA; NSGA-II; epsilon indicator; heterogeneous low-enriched uranium optimization; hypervolume indicator; mixed-integer solution space; mixed-oxide fuel assemblies; multiobjective alliance algorithm; pressurized water reactors; Assembly; Fuels; Inductors; Loading; Optimization; Pins; Standards;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Evolutionary Computation (CEC), 2014 IEEE Congress on

Conference_Location

Beijing

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-6626-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CEC.2014.6900417

Filename

6900417