LQGI/LTR based robust control technique for a pressurized water nuclear power plant

• Published in: Annals of nuclear energy Vol. 154; p. 108105
• Main Authors: Vajpayee, Vineet, Becerra, Victor, Bausch, Nils, Deng, Jiamei, Shimjith, S.R., Arul, A. John
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-05-2021
• Subjects: Hybrid control; Nuclear power plant; Optimal control; Pressurized water reactor; Robust control; Robust control; Nuclear power plant; Optimal control; Hybrid control; Pressurized water reactor
• ISSN: 0306-4549; 1873-2100
• DOI: 10.1016/j.anucene.2020.108105

•A hybrid controller is proposed to improve the control performance of PWR-type NPP.•The LQG, LQI, and LTR are integrated to design state-feedback assisted output controller.•Robust control of core-power, SG pressure, turbine-speed, pressurizer pressure and level.•Guaranteed set-point tracking with zero steady-state error in an uncertain environment.
This work proposes a new hybrid control strategy for a pressurized water type nuclear power plant by integrating linear quadratic integrator (LQI), linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG), and loop transfer recovery (LTR) approaches. The multi-input multi-output nuclear plant model adopted in this work is characterized by 38 state variables. The nonlinear plant model is linearized around steady-state operating conditions to obtain a linear model for the controller design. The proposed LQGI/LTR technique designs state-feedback assisted output control using the estimated states. The control architecture offers robust performance and tracks the reference set-point with zero steady-state error in the presence of uncertainties and disturbances. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is demonstrated by simulations on different subsections of a pressurized water nonlinear nuclear power plant model. The control performance of the proposed technique is further compared with other classical control design schemes. Statistical measures are employed to quantitatively analyse control performance.