Stabilization of a Coupled-Core Reactor Control System Using Artificial Dither

The use of a perfect relay in the automatic control of a coupled-core reactor results in an undesirable limit-cycle, regardless of the reactivity rate demand. In order to enable the use of a perfect relay, artificial dither is inserted into the control system loop. This paper presents the principle and establishes the nature of the stabilization signal that eliminates possible limit-cycle in the system. An example is presented to illustrate the procedure, and a digital computer simulation results are given.