DSP Controlled Twelve-pulse 24 kA Thyristorised AC-DC Converter for Nuclear Application

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Experimental facilities of Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) use simulated nuclear fuel clusters for conducting research studies to understand the effect of power/temperature transients on nuclear fuel. Powering those transients in an experimental facility is performed by electrical heating analogous to nuclear fission heating by controlled high current through high power converters. The desired power/temperature profile can be obtained by controlling the reference current of the phase-controlled converter system regardless of input voltage and load resistance variations. This paper presents design and performance simulation of Digital Signal Processor (DSP) controlled twelve-pulse 24 kA AC- DC thyristorised converter powering nuclear fuel cluster simulators. The target controller is a TI DSP TMS320F28335, for low voltage high current application in close loop system. The thyristor converters are operated individually as well as in parallel for high DC current supply to fuel rod cluster simulator. The performance simulation results highlighting waveforms of various electrical parameters are presented for demonstration of proposed design validation.