Spatial control of a large Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor using sliding mode observer and control

The paper presents a method to design a spatial control system based on sliding mode observer. The non-linear model of pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR) including xenon and iodine dynamics is characterized by 70 state variables and 14 inputs and outputs each. Linear nodal model is obtained by linearizing the non-linear dynamic equations of the reactor about the full power operating point. A sliding mode spatial controller is designed for the linearized model of the reactor and the state computation is successfully done by the sliding mode observer. From simulation of the non-linear model of the reactor in representative transients, the proposed control and observer scheme is found to be satisfactory.