P controller with partial feed forward compensation and decoupling control for the steam generator water level

In this paper, a P controller with partial feed forward compensation and decoupling control for the steam generator water level is presented. While taking the steam flowrate as a disturbance to water level, the controller design can be completed in three stages. (1) Main circuit controller is designed without regard to disturbance. Since the transfer function of the steam generator model contains integrate element and differential element, the proportional (P) controller can selected as main circuit controller instead of PID controller for steam generator water level. (2) Partial feed forward compensation is introduced to remove the disturbance from the steam flowrate. If disregarding the differential element, the partial feed forward compensation's designing turns to be very simple. Partial feed forward compensation coefficient is set as reciprocal of P controller gain. (3) The coupling effects between the water level regulating and steam flowrate disturbance can be decreased by model reference decoupling control. The proposed methodology shows satisfactory transient responses, disturbance rejection and robustness.