A new approach to control of xenon spatial oscillation during load follow operation via robust servo systems

The control problem of xenon-induced spatial oscillations of a PWR in the axial direction during a load following operation is investigated. The system models are described by a one-group diffusion equation with xenon and temperature feedbacks, iodine and xenon dynamic equations, and heat conduction processes. Control is implemented by full-length and part-length control rods and the boron concentration. In order to achieve the control purpose, control models are formulated as the design problem of robust servo systems for distributed parameter reactor systems. The total thermal power and the axial offset are chosen as outputs to be controlled. The control systems consist of servo compensators and stabilizing compensators. They are designed based on finite-dimensional systems which are constructed by linearizing around steady states, approximating by the Galerkin method, and reducing dimensions via the singular perturbation method. A new and simple computational algorithm to obtain an approximate solution of steady-state neutron balance is developed via the perturbation method. Some results of numerical simulations are shown in order to discuss the effectiveness of the theory developed in this paper. In particular, it is shown that the designed servo systems are robust against model errors with linearization and modal truncation.<>