Improved temperature control of a PWR nuclear reactor using an LQG/LTR based controller

Abstract

State feedback assisted classical (SFAC) control has been developed to improve the temperature response performance of nuclear reactors via modifying the embedded classical controller reference signal. This is done by means of an outermost state feedback controller. A linear quadratic Gaussian with loop transfer recovery (LQG/LTR) at the plant output seems a good candidate for the state feedback loop of SFAC structure, but it ends up in a closed loop system with tightly controlled power. To pay more attention to temperature responses, this paper presents the results of using LQG/LTR at the plant input in SFAC structure. We impose a minor change for considering, to some extent, the variation of system poles (and hence its speed) due to linearization of the nonlinear plant in equilibrium conditions other than the design power. The results are compared to an existing LQG controller with LTR at the plant output. Sensitivity of dominant closed loop poles and nonlinear simulations are used for demonstration and comparison.