Level control in the steam generator of a nuclear power plant

Abstract

Poor control of the steam generator water level in the secondary circuit of a nuclear power plant can lead to frequent reactor shutdowns. Such shutdowns are caused by violation of safety limits on the water level and are common at low operating power where the plant exhibits strong nonminimum phase characteristics and flow measurements are unreliable. There is, therefore, a need to systematically investigate the problem of controlling the water level in the steam generator in order to prevent such costly reactor shutdowns. The paper presents a framework for addressing this problem based on an extension of the standard linear model predictive control algorithm to linear parameter varying systems.