Time-Varying Characteristics Analysis and Fuzzy Controller Systematic Design Method for Pressurized Water Reactor Power Control

In this paper a systematic design method of fuzzy control systems is applied to the pressurized water reactor's (PWR) power control. The paper includes three parts. In the first part, a simplified time-varying linear model of the PWR power system is constructed, and its inner structure and time-varying characteristics are analyzed. That provides a solid basis for study and design of the nuclear reactor power control system. In the second part, a systematic design method of fuzzy control systems is introduced and applied to control the nuclear reactor power process. The design procedures and parameters are given in detail. This systematic design method has some notable advantages. The control of a global fuzzy model can be decomposed into controlling a set of linear submodels. Each submodel controller can be independently designed by using a linear quadratic regulator approach. This systematic design method gives a sufficient and necessary condition to guarantee the stability of fuzzy control systems; thus, better control performance can be obtained due to the accurate control gains. In the third part, the control performance of the nuclear reactor fuzzy control system is examined by simulation experiments, including nuclear reactor power shutdown, start-up, and adjustment operations. The satisfactory experiment results have shown that the systematic design method for fuzzy control systems is effective and feasible.