A Novel PID Self-Tuning Method Based on Closed-Loop Identification Used in Nuclear Power Plants

Abstract

Nuclear power is one of several significant clean energy and its production capacity is increasing rapidly. This paper proposed a novel PID self-tuning method based on closed-loop identification used in nuclear power plants to deal with the turbine’s load tracking problem. A setpoint-shifting method is adopted to achieve the informativity of the closed-loop system, and the PID parameters are designed through an optimization method. For validating the proposed method, this paper modeled a pressurized-water reactor (PWR) nuclear power plant, a complex system consisting of three circuits, through the first principle. The primary circuit contains three main devices: a nuclear reactor, a pressurizer, and a steam generator. The models of these three devices are provided by previous literature separately. The whole model is generated through mass and energy balance. This mechanism model is used as the plant model, while the identified model is used as the control model. The initial PID parameters are set through open-loop identification using an external excitation. Then the proposed method works online to track the turbine’s load in time. The effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated by simulations.