A Novel, Robust Control Methodology Application to Nuclear Reactors

Abstract Several analytical model reduction techniques have been proposed in the literature over the past few decades. We introduce the application of the Schur model reduction method to design a reduced-order, robust controller for the Egyptian Second Testing Research Reactor (ETRR-2). The linear matrix inequality approach is used to design a robust, low-order H∞ state feedback control system and a robust H∞ observer-based controller to control the reactor power. A comparison between the proposed controllers and the actually used conventional proportional-plus-derivative controller is presented based on the simulation of the full-order nonlinear model. Results show the effectiveness of H∞ observer-based state feedback for control of the reactor power at different operation conditions and that it guarantees the system stability.