Feedback control for the nuclear reactors

ABSTRACT

The paper considers the standard nuclear reactor model with pointwise active zone dynamics together with the dynamics of the external circuits of the reactor in the linearised version. There are presented some Lyapunov functions and the corresponding stability theorems. These Lyapunov functions can be used in synthesising feedback controllers for the reactor power. Two cases – the control Lyapunov function and the sliding mode control – are considered. It is shown that the same Lyapunov functions used in synthesis can be used to obtain stability of the closed-loop reactor-controller.

KEYWORDS:

• Control Lyapunov function
• sliding mode control
• pointwise nuclear reactors

Acknowledgements

The author of this paper had the unusual chance to cross his scientific interests with Dr. Aleksandr Semyonovich Poznyak, outstanding scholar in Automatic Control but also a man with a very broad interests in culture and humanities. As ‘product’ of the famous school of the Moscow Institute of Technical Physics but mainly of the non-less famous Institute of Control Problems of the Russian Academy of Science, he produced outstanding contributions in many domains of Automatic Control, being an example of what an intellectual must be in our rapidly changing world. In fact Aleksandr Semyonovich Poznyak is a genuine scientific and moral landmark showing to the new coming to the science how a scientist should be. This paper is dedicated to his birthday anniversary.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Unitatea Executiva pentru Finantarea Ivatamantului Superior, Cercetarii, Dezvoltarii si Inovarii by the Project [PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0198]