Fractional-order sliding mode load following control via disturbance observer for modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactor system with disturbances

Load-following control of the modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (MHTGR) system is one of the essential control problems in practical applications. In this paper, a fractional-order sliding mode control strategy via a disturbance observer (FOSMCS-DO) is presented for load following of the MHTGR system with model uncertainties and external disturbances. First of all, the mathematical model of the MHTGR system is constructed by taking neutronics and thermodynamics as well as disturbances into account. Then, based on the MHTGR model, a DO is designed to estimate the lumped disturbances that are composed of model uncertainties, external disturbances, and unmeasured states. Meanwhile, by adopting the Lyapunov stability theory, a FOSMCS is developed to guarantee all the signals of the closed-loop load-following control system tend to be stable, where in the control framework, the adverse effects of the lumped disturbances are alleviated by means of the feedforward compensation and the DO. This implies that the proposed overall control strategy possesses strong robustness against model uncertainties and external disturbances. Finally, comparative simulation results with some existing control approaches are provided to illustrate the superiority of the proposed control strategy.