Adaptive Integral Terminal Sliding Mode Tracking Control for a Non-Linear Nuclear Reactor System

Abstract

This paper presents an adaptive finite time control scheme using the terminal sliding mode control, for a nonlinear nuclear reactor system. Compared to the linear sliding surface based sliding mode control, terminal sliding mode control with nonlinear sliding surface provides finite time convergence and high precision control. Finite time convergence of error trajectory to the equilibrium point from any initial condition is verified by analysis. Singularity problem associated with the conventional terminal sliding mode control is eliminated by defining an integral terminal sliding surface. An adaptive gain tuning algorithm is integrated with the proposed control law to estimate the upper bound of unknown lumped system uncertainties. Robustness of the closed-loop system is proved with the help of Lyapunov theory. The proposed controller is then applied to a nuclear reactor to track the demand power in finite time. Finally, effectiveness of the proposed control scheme in the presence of uncertainties and external disturbances is demonstrated through simulation results.