Abstract
The stability of a power reactor with multiple transport lags and nonlinear charac-teristics embodied in the controller is analyzed by parameter plane method. The analysis covers two reactor models: (a) A rather simple model, symbolically representing the features of a nonlinear controller, one transport lag and the reactor with temperature feedback, and (b) A more realistic model depicting a practical chemical fine-control reactor system characterized by multiple transport lags and mixing effect associated with the chemical fluid, the nonlinear characteristics of chemical injection valves, and the spatial distribution of poison inside the reactor, as well as the reactor temperature feedback. These analyses yield much useful information about the stability of both systems, such as the conditions of reactor stability and of the occurrence of limit cycles, as well as the aspects of discontinuous change of the limit cycle frequency. Use of this parameter plane method will greatly simplify evaluation of the stability of even a fairly complex reactor control system that depends not only on the system parameters but also on the nonlinear controller characteristics and initial input signal amplitude.
