Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University –
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Researchers from the Advanced Engineering School "Digital Engineering" at Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University have presented a digital model of a vitrification furnace for high-level radioactive waste. The digital model will allow engineers to plan production cycles for complex nuclear waste disposal equipment more quickly, efficiently, and safely. The development is being commissioned by the Mayak Production Association (part of Rosatom State Corporation) and is based on the CML-Bench® digital twin development and application platform under the supervision of Alexey Borovkov, Chief Designer for System Digital Engineering, SPbPU's key scientific and technological development area.
Vitrification technology is the global standard for liquid radioactive waste disposal. Sintering in a special furnace at temperatures exceeding 1000 degrees Celsius transforms the waste into a solid, glass-like substance. This approach achieves two key objectives: first, it reduces the initial volume of hazardous materials by removing the liquid component, and second, it encases them in a chemically stable and durable form, ideal for safe storage over long periods of time. This is the most effective and safest of all existing methods.
Engineers from the St. Petersburg Polytechnic University's PSI have developed a digital model of a vitrification furnace. It allows engineers to "peek inside" a working installation and conduct hundreds of digital tests, ushering in a new era in the design of critical nuclear facilities.
The model shows how the glass melt moves, how the temperature changes in different zones, and how the equipment responds to changing operating modes. This is especially important for ensuring the efficient operation of such complex equipment as a vitrification furnace. The digital model takes into account the influence of complex physical processes, including heat transfer, hydrodynamics, electrodynamics, and more. Simultaneously considering multiple input parameters and their interactions allows for complex studies to be conducted digitally to optimize the vitrification process, which is cheaper and safer than in-kind testing, noted Dmitry Evstratov, Lead Engineer of the Cross-Industry Technologies Department at the Engineering Center (CompMechLab®) at PISh SPbPU.
Only a limited number of countries possess the technology to vitrify high-level radioactive waste, but a digital model of this unique equipment has been created for the first time in the world.
The main practical result of this development is that the system enables full-scale testing on virtual test rigs, repeatedly validating various operating scenarios and design solutions. Using digital twin technology shifts the bulk of engineering risks to the development stage. This means that both developers and operators of high-tech equipment can test the effectiveness of various operating scenarios on the CML-Bench® digital platform and implement the one that yields the best digital test results in a real installation. This dramatically reduces the need for expensive and time-consuming full-scale testing and numerous design modifications. As a result, overall installation lifecycle costs are reduced, and its reliability increases significantly, noted Yuri Gorsky, Head of the Cross-Industry Technologies Department at the Engineering Center (CompMechLab®) at PSI SPbPU.
To create the model, scientists used advanced computer modeling techniques: finite element and finite volume methods, supplemented by machine learning and regression analysis algorithms. The digital model has already been validated: its performance was compared with data from an existing pilot plant. Discrepancies in key parameters were minimal, confirming its validity.
Work in this area has been underway at SPbPU for several years. In 2023, a team from the Engineering Center (CompMechLab®) at SPbPU's PISh, commissioned by FSUE PO Mayak (Rosatom State Corporation), developed the architecture of the future digital twin—its detailed design and a system of mathematical and computer models. This work represents a logical and fundamentally new result: the previously developed architecture has been embodied in a fully functional digital engineering tool.
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