Adaptive Kalman Filtering for Compensating the Response Delay of Self Powered Neutron Detectors

Self Powered Neutron Detectors (SPNDs) are widely used in the large nuclear reactors as in-core flux monitors due to their simple structure, self-powered feature, and ruggedness. However, these detectors are associated with response delay, which precludes their direct use for control and protection applications. Therefore, a method to improve the response time of these detectors would enable them for core monitoring and surveillance applications. In this paper, an Adaptive Kalman filter (AKF) is proposed for dynamic compensation of SPNDs. The results of proposed compensator are compared with the existing standard Kalman filter based algorithm and superiority of the proposed compensator is established under various simulated scenarios.