Associate Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering

Ph.D. adviser/Master’s adviser

dongzhe@tsinghua.edu.cn

(+86 10) 6278-3764 (O)

Education background

PhD, Tsinghua University, Instrument Science and Technology, 2007

B.S., Tsinghua University, Mechanical Engineering, 2002

Experience  

12/2019-present, Tenured Associate Professor, I&C Division, INET

12/2018-present, Deputy Head of I&C Division, INET

12/2011-11/2019, Associate Professor, I&C Division, INET

05/2007-11/2011, Assistant Professor, I&C Division, INET

Social service  

Teaching

Operation and Control of Nuclear Power Plants, for graduate students, in spring semester

Service

Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science

Senior Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)

Senior Member, Chinese Nuclear Society (CNS)

Areas of Research Interests/ Research Projects

Nuclear Plant Operation and Control

Control Theory and Application

Statistical Signal Processing

Areas of Research Interests/ Research Projects  

Nuclear Plant Operation and Control

The main contribution is the development of coordinate control method for multi-modular nuclear plants, which can effectively address coordinated control inside a reactor module, among multiple modules and between the nuclear plant and the grid. This control method has already been applied to design the plant coordinated control system (CCS) of national high temperature gas-cooled reactor demonstration plant HTR-PM.

Control Theory and Application

The main contribution is the physics-based control (PBC) method of thermodynamic systems, which is based upon the principle of irreversible thermodynamics. Ectropy is adopted as the Lyapunov function, the sufficient condition for the asymptotic self-stability of a nuclear reactor can be given, and it is even shown that simple proportional-differential (PD) control law is sufficient to stabilize a complex nuclear reactor.

Observation and Estimation

The main contribution is about the state-estimation and disturbance-observation, including the robust Kalman filtering (RKF) and extended-state observer (ESO) for nonlinear dissipative. These techniques can be applied to the observation or estimation of unmeasurable variables, parameters and disturbances of nuclear plants.

Research Status

2018-2020

Control and operation technique of multimodular HTGR power plant

2018-2020

Control room design and human factor analysis for multimodular HTGR power plant

2018-2021

Resilient control of multimodular nuclear plants

2014-2017

Coordinated control of multimodular high temperature gas-cooled reactor plants

2011-2013

Nonlinear robust control of pebble-bed high temperature gas-cooled reactor plants

Academic Achievement  

Dong has published more than 50 SCI-indexed journal papers as the first author, and some represented papers are given as follows.

Dong Z, Zhang Z, Dong Y, Huang X. Cascaded HTGR power-level control only by regulating primary helium flow rate. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 67: 1780-1790, 2020.

Dong Z, Huang X, Dong Y, Zhang Z. Multilayer perception based reinforcement learning supervisory control of energy systems with application to a nuclear steam supply system.

Applied Energy, 259: 114193, 2020.

Dong Z, Liu M, Zhang Z, Dong Y, Huang X. Automatic generation control for the flexible operation of multimodular high temperature gas-cooled reactor plants. Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, 108: 11-31, 2019.

Dong Z, Liu M, Huang X, Zhang Y, Zhang Z, Dong Y. Dynamical modeling and simulation analysis of a nuclear desalination plant based on the MED-TVC process. Desalination, 456: 121-135, 2019.

Dong Z, Liu M, Guo Z, Huang X, Zhang Y, Zhang Z. Adaptive state-observer for monitoring flexible nuclear reactors. Energy, 171: 893-909, 2019.

Dong Z, Pan Y, Zhang Z, Dong Y, Huang X. Dynamical modeling and simulation of the six-modular high temperature gas-cooled reactor plant HTR-PM600. Energy, 155: 971-991, 2018.

Dong Z, Zhang Z, Dong Y, Huang X. Multi-layer perception based model predictive control for the thermal power of nuclear superheated-steam supply systems. Energy, 151: 116-125, 2018.

Dong Z, Pan Y, Huang X. Parameter identifiability of Boolean networks with application to fault diagnosis of nuclear plants. Nuclear Engineering and Technology, 50: 599-605, 2018.

Dong Z, Pan Y. A lumped-parameter dynamical model of a nuclear heating reactor cogeneration plant. Energy, 145: 638-656, 2018.

Dong Z, Pan Y, Huang X, Dong Y, Zhang Z. Coordinated control system design and verification of HTR-PM Plant. Nuclear Engineering and Design, 329: 25-33, 2018.

Dong Z, Pan Y, Zhang Z, Dong Y, Huang X. Model-free adaptive control law for nuclear superheated-steam supply systems. Energy, 135: 53-67, 2017.

Dong Z*, Pan Y, Zhang Z, Dong Y, Huang X. Modeling and control of fluid flow networks with application to a nuclear-solar hybrid plant. Energies, 10: 1912, 2017.

Dong Z, Song M, Huang X, Zhang Z, Wu Z. Coordination control of SMR-based NSSS modules integrated by feedwater distribution. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 63: 2691-2697, 2016.

Dong Z, Huang X, Li D, Zhang Z. Reactivity estimation based on an extended state observer of neutron kinetics. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 63: 2682-2690, 2016.

Dong Z, Song M, Huang X, Zhang Z, Wu Z. Module coordination control of MHTGR-based multi-modular nuclear plants. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 63: 1889-1900, 2016.