Optimal PID controller design for nuclear reactor power systems using model order reduction techniques

The power control system of a nuclear reactor is one of the key systems that concern the safe operation of theplant. Much attention is paid to the power control systems performance of nuclear reactors in engineering. In thispaper, we first present a technique for order reduction of a system via system balancing, and then an optimizedcontroller based on the genetic algorithm has been designed and simulated to control the reactor power system. Theproposed controller is capable of regulating power levels in a wide range (from 20% to 100%). The simulation resultswith the reduced-order model and with the optimized controller show that the performance of the power control systemis improved.

Keywords:

order-reduction , optimization , nuclear reactor , GA alghorithm