Extended state observer-based adaptive dynamic sliding mode control for power level of nuclear power plant

It is well known that nuclear energy is a clean, safe, and reliable energy resource. Nuclear power plant is one of the prominent applications of nuclear energy. In this paper, aiming at improving the control performance for power level of nuclear power plant, an extended state observer-based adaptive dynamic sliding mode control (ESO-ADSMC) scheme is proposed. The mathematical model of nuclear reactor is firstly constructed based on point-reactor kinetics equations. Then, an extended state observer is designed to estimate both unmeasured states and output disturbances in real time, and the asymptotic convergence of the observer error state space is analyzed according to Routh-Hurwitz and Lyapunov stability theory. Subsequently, an adaptive dynamic sliding mode control approach is proposed for power level control of nuclear power plants in the presence of output disturbances, which is a combination of sliding mode control and backstepping control to enhance disturbance rejection ability. In addition, the chattering phenomenon is eliminated due to the discontinuous sign function contained in the first derivative of actual control input. Finally, simulation studies are carried out to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed control strategy compared with backstepping control method in terms of the accuracy and rapidity of the response of power level, and robustness against output disturbances. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.