Abstract Once-through steam generator (OTSG) installed in Small pressurized reactor has the characteristics of high nonlinearity, time-varying parameters, and uncertain disturbances. The traditional PID control method is difficult to obtain satisfactory control performance. Therefore, a cascade control system for OTSG steam pressure is proposed based on an active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) method. ADRC can estimate and compensate the general disturbances, including the external disturbances, model uncertainties, and ignored dynamics in modelling process, which reduces algorithm rely on mathematical model. In addition, aiming to ensure an optimal control performance, the improved differential evolution algorithm is used to solve the control parameters setting problem of ADRC. At last, under 100 % and 30 % power levels, the control results of the ADRC control are compared to those of the traditional PID control. Simulation results show that the ADRC control has better setpoint tracking capability, disturbance rejecting capability, and robust performance.
Guo et al. (Wed,) studied this question.