A Control System Study for an In-Core Thermionic Reactor

摘要

Conceptual reactor controllers for in-core thermionic reactor space power plants have been investigated by analysis and by analog simulation. The control system was specified to maintain constant output voltage at the reactor terminals, while minimizing the effect of electric load changes and internal and external disturbances.nUsing state-variable feedback design techniques and linearized system equations, constant feedback coefficients were determined so as to give the desired system response. The sensitivity to parameter variations and noise was evaluated. The controller design obtained by analysis of the linear model was applied to the corresponding nonlinear model simulated on analog computers. The correlation between the results predicted with the linear model and those obtained by the simulation was found to be good.