The Design of a Nonlinear Reactor Control System

The design procedure for a nonlinear reactor control system is described. The control system contains two nonlinearities, separated by a linear section: a dead-band, normally used to reduce the noise excitation of the control system, and a gear backlash, which in this case is particularly important, due to the fact that the control elements are cylinders with limited effective angular range. The type of electrical motors was also defined (Slo-Syn motors, which can operate as synchronous or stepping motors). The work has been developed using analog and analytical methods in parallel, and the final control scheme (a velocity servo with stepping motors) has been throughly tested on the analog computer with noisy inputs, and theoretically studied with a describing function method extended to the case of systems with multiple nonlinearities connected by linear sections.