Adaptive second-order nonsingular terminal sliding mode power-level control for nuclear power plants

Abstract

This paper focuses on the power-level control of nuclear power plants (NPPs) in the presence of lumped disturbances. An adaptive second-order nonsingular terminal sliding mode control (ASONTSMC) scheme is proposed by resorting to the second-order nonsingular terminal sliding mode. The pre-existing mathematical model of the nuclear reactor system is firstly described based on point-reactor kinetics equations with six delayed neutron groups. Then, a second-order sliding mode control approach is proposed by integrating a proportional-derivative sliding mode (PDSM) manifold with a nonsingular terminal sliding mode (NTSM) manifold. An adaptive mechanism is designed to estimate the unknown upper bound of a lumped uncertain term that is composed of lumped disturbances and system states real-timely. The estimated values are then added to the controller, resulting in the control system capable of compensating the adverse effects of the lumped disturbances efficiently. Since the sign function is contained in the first time derivative of the real control law, the continuous input signal is obtained after integration so that the chattering effects of the conventional sliding mode control are suppressed. The robust stability of the overall control system is demonstrated through Lyapunov stability theory. Finally, the proposed control scheme is validated through simulations and comparisons with a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller, a super twisting sliding mode controller (STSMC), and a disturbance observer-based adaptive sliding mode controller (DO-ASMC).