Loop shaping H∞ design applied to the steam generator level control in EDF nuclear power plants

The objective of this paper is to design a controller for a pressurized water reactor steam generator using model based control techniques. The loop-shaping design procedure of McFarlane and Glover (1992) is used together with the gap metric of Vinnicombe (1992), the latter allowing one to a priori insure the robust stability of several linearized models. Namely the gap metric is used to select the nominal model of a family P of models and to select the design parameters of the loop-shaping procedure. Robust stability against parametric uncertainties are investigated with real μ-analysis. The classical approach of frequency gridding is compared with a method of elimination of frequency search proposed by Sideris and Helmersson. The proposed controller is finally validated on a nonlinear PWR model of a nuclear power plant