Adaptive fuzzy model based predictive control of nuclear steam generators

Poor control of U-tube steam generators (UTSG) in a nuclear power plant can lead to frequent reactor shutdowns or damage of turbine blades. The dynamics of steam generator vary as power level changes. There is, therefore, a need to systematically design a suitable controller for all power levels. In this paper, we employ the concepts of both predictive control and fuzzy set theory to design an appropriate control for UTSG water level. The controller has three main parts: (1) a TSK fuzzy model used for predicting the future behavior of UTSG, (2) a recursive algorithm to estimate parameters of this model and (3) a model predictive controller used to obtain optimal input control sequence. Simulation results show that the proposed controller has a remarkable performance for tracking the step and ramp reference trajectories while at the same time it is robust against steam flowrate changes.