LAUSR

Abstract Control of the nuclear reactors during load-following operation is the most important problem in nuclear power plants due to safety reasons. In the nuclear reactor, imbalance of axial power distribution induces xenon oscillations. These fluctuations must be maintained bounded within allowable limits. Otherwise, the nuclear power plant could become unstable. Therefore, bounded these oscillations is considered to be a restriction for the load following operation. In this paper, for the first time, in order to ensure these oscillations are kept bounded within allowable limits during load-following operation, an adaptive robust control based on the multipoint kinetics reactor model is presented for P.W.R nuclear reactors. The reactor core is simulated based on the multi-point nuclear reactor model (neutronic and thermal-hydraulic) and three delayed neutrons groups. The adaptation laws for updating the reactor parameters are generated using the Lyapunov approach. The stability analysis is given by means Lyapunov approach, then the control system is guaranteed to be stable within a large range. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive control in terms of performance, robustness and stability and show that the adaptive parameters are bounded and stable in the presence of the parameters uncertainties and disturbances.