Output Feedback Power-Level Control of MHTGRs: Design with Hardware-in-Loop Verification

Due to the inherent safety feature, the modular high-temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactor (MHTGR) is proper to be utilized to build a new generation of nuclear power plants. Motivated by the large scale closed-loop stability provided by nonlinear controllers, a nonlinear output feedback power-level control based on both the techniques of feedback dissipation and well-established backstepping is given in this paper. The virtue of this controller, i.e. the ability of globally asymptotic stabilization is based on the inherent zero-state detectability property of the dynamics of the MHTGR. This controller is then simplified to a proportional output feedback controller which guarantees strong stability performance if the uncertainty of control rod dynamics is small enough. This simplified power-level controller has chosen to be the practical implementation strategy. Verification results provided by the hardware-in-loop simulation show the feasibility of this simplified control strategy.