Decentralized state-space controller design of a large PHWR

Abstract

The behaviour of a large nuclear reactor can be described with sufficient accuracy using a nodal model, like the spatial model of a 540 MWe large Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR). This model divides the reactor into divisions or nodes to create a spatial model in order to control the xenon induced oscillations that occur in PHWRs. However, being such a large scale system, a 72nd-order model, it makes controller design challenging. Therefore, a reduced order model is much more manageable. A convenient method of model reduction while maintaining the important dynamics characteristics of the process can be done by decoupling. Also, due to the nature of the system, decentralized controllers could serve as a better option because it allows each controller to be localized. This way, any control input to a zone only affects the desired zone and the zones most coupled with, thus not causing a respective change in neutron flux in the other zones. In this thesis, three decentralized controllers were designed using the spatial model of a 540 MWe large PHWR. A decoupling algorithm was designed to divide the system into three partitions containing 20, 27, and 25 states each. Reduced order sub-systems were thus created to produce optimal decentralized controllers. An optimal centralized controller was created to compare both approaches. The decentralized versus centralized controllers’ system responses were analyzed after a reactivity disturbance. A fail-safe study was done to highlight one of the advantages of decentralized controllers.