3rd International Conference on Electrical, Electronics, Engineering Trends, Communication, Optimization and Sciences (EEECOS)-2016
Fractional Order IMC-PID Controller Design for the
Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor
Sumeet Sagar, Sukhman Kaur1and Swati Sondhi
Electrical and Instrumentation Engineering Department, Thapar University, Patiala, India
(e-mail: swatiei@gmail.com)
Keywords: Internal Model Control, Fractional Order
Systems, Fractional Order PID Controller,
PHWR.
Abstract
A pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR) is a nuclear
power reactor, that commonly uses unenriched natural
uranium as its fuel and heavy water as its coolant and
moderator. The PHWR has become an important component
of the present day power generation industry. Working of a
PHWR may often require reduction of nuclear power within
a small finite time interval in accordance to the varying load
conditions. This phenomenon is referred to as step back
condition. Therefore, for the efficient working of the PHWR
it is very important to have a control algorithm that has the
capability to handle the step back condition very precisely.
The fractional order control strategy has emerged as one of
the very versatile and accurate control strategies in the recent
times. The fractional order PID (FOPID) controllers are
known to give very robust performance both in nominal as
well as varying operating conditions. However, most of the
design techniques available for the FOPID controllers are
mathematically very lengthy and complex. Therefore, in this
paper an FOPID controller design technique has been
suggested using the concept of internal model control (IMC-
FOPID) for the PHWR under step back conditions. Further,
the performance of the proposed controller has been
compared with the conventional FOPID controller using the
various integral error criterions. The proposed IMC-FOPID
controller is found to give an improved performance as
compared to the conventional FOPID controller.
I. INTRODUCTION
In the rapidly modernizing world of today, automation
and control has become a very vital aspect in the area of
industrial technology. The pressurized heavy water reactors
(PHWR) are an extremely important part of the modern day
power generation industry. PHWR is a nuclear power reactor
that uses heavy water as its coolant and moderator. The
heavy water coolant is kept under pressure that allows it to
be heated to higher temperatures without boiling. Although
heavy water is significantly more expensive than the
ordinary light water, however, it is still preferred mainly
because it yields greatly enhanced neutron economy. This
allows the reactor to operate without fuel enrichment
facilities and generally enhances the ability of the nuclear
reactor to efficiently make use of alternate fuel cycles. When
the PHWR works under varying load conditions or under
some abnormal conditions, the bulk power of the nuclear
reactor is required to be reduced. This is done mainly with
the help of control rods. When the power of the reactor
needs to be reduced the control rods are inserted into the
reactor up to the required level. This condition is called
reactor step back condition. The conventional methods used
for the insertion of control rods often give rise to undershoot
in the output. However, due to the safety constraints much
oscillation is not permissible in the reactor output. Therefore,
it is very important to have a robust and precise control
strategy that can make the PHWR plant work efficiently
under the step back conditions. A lot of researchers have
been working in the direction of formulating efficient control
strategies for this task. The conventional Proportional-
Integral-Derivative (PID) controllers along with many other
popular techniques have been very widely used due to the
simplicity of their implementation and design [1]-[9].
In order to design an efficient controller for a system it is
essential to have an appropriate mathematical model of that
system. According to the recent literature, it has been
observed that for the case of highly complicated systems
such as gas turbine plants, nuclear reactors, non-linear
thermal systems, complex biological systems etc. fractional
order modeling gives a closer representation of the plant
behavior as compared to the integer order modeling [10].
The dynamic behavior of the system represented by the
fractional order mathematical model is found to be much
closer to the real life dynamics for such systems. Therefore,
a lot of research is being carried out these days in order to
make the use of fractional order mathematical models easy
and widespread [11]-[19]. The fractional order dynamical
model for the PHWR plant for different operating conditions
is derived in [9].
In recent times fractional order control systems have gained
a significant popularity among the research community. The
advancements in the field of fractional calculus paved way
for the control engineers to explore the area of fractional
order control systems [20]. The various conventional
controller design schemes like artificial intelligence,
adaptive control, optimal control etc., have been suggested
for the design of fractional order controllers for various
applications [21]-[29]. However, most of the techniques
available in the literature are mathematically very complex
and lengthy. But at the same time, these fractional order
controllers are known to give improved performance, better
disturbance rejection and better stability than the
conventional controllers [33].
Another control algorithm that is known to give a very
robust performance is the internal model control (IMC). This
type of controller is mathematically very easy to design and
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3rd International Conference on Electrical, Electronics, Engineering Trends, Communication, Optimization and Sciences (EEECOS)-2016

is robust towards the disturbances [32]. Although, IMC  

GM ( s )  GM ( s )G M (s) (3)
based controllers are very popular for the integer order
 
1

systems, very limited work has been done for designing the Q ( s )  GM ( s) F ( s) (4)
IMC controllers for the fractional order systems[35]-[40].
1
Therefore, in this paper a simplified IMC based fractional where, F ( s)  (5)
order PID controller is proposed for the PHWR which gives (1   s )m
the dual advantage of computational simplicity as well as In (5),  is the tuning parameter, known as IMC filter
improved performance. Using this technique, the advantages constant or closed-loop time constant. This parameter is
of both internal model control as well as fractional order responsible for the speed and robustness of the controller
control can be embedded into a single controller. Hence, response. While m is a value chosen such that Q( s ) becomes
through the proposed technique an attempt is made to physically realizable.
improve the performance of the PHWR under step back
condition, by utilizing the advantageous properties of the
two most desirable and versatile control strategies (i.e.
internal model control and fractional order control)
simultaneously.

II. OBJECTIVE
The main objective of this work is to formulate an Internal
Model Control based FOPID controller for a PHWR under
step back condition that is mathematically easy to design,
Fig.1. IMC strategy- dotted line indicates calculations
gives improved response and better disturbance rejection.
performed by the model based controller
The work presented here shows that the IMC based
fractional order controller when applied to the fractional
order systems gives better performance than the
conventional fractional PID controller.

III. MATHEMATICAL PRELIMINARIES

Internal model control (IMC) is a model based controller Fig. 2 IMC strategy converted into classical feedback form
design technique in which the process model is embedded
into the controller. It is a very simple but highly efficient
control technique which is known to give better disturbance Table 1. Fractional order models of the PHWR plant at
rejection [34]. The basic IMC structure can be easily modified different operating points
to form the conventional feedback control system structure. Identified
Reduced Fractional order Models
The basic IMC design strategy is shown in Fig.1. The Model
1522.8947 12
controller Q( s ) and the process model GM ( s ) are combined 30
P100 e 2.004310 s
s 2.0971
 8.1944 s 1.0036
 7.7684
into one (shown in Fig.1 using dotted lines) to form the IMC
controller in the classical feedback form. The modified 1359.2345 9
30
P90 e 1.596810 s
structure is shown below in Fig.2 where, s 2.0972
 8.1906 s 1.0036
 7.7075
C( s)
Q( s )  (1) 1027.3027 5
1  GM ( s)C( s) 30
P80 e 2.534610 s
s 2.0163  6.7859 s 0.99388  6.5268
Q( s )
C(s)  (2) 1074.396 10
1  GM (s)Q(s) 30
P70 e 3.143110 s
s 2.0961  8.2663s1.0037  7.8641
In the IMC design procedure Q(s)  GM 1(s) and 5
529.1365
G ( s )  G M ( s ) is considered. However, if the controller is
50
P100 e 1.604910 s
s 2.1002
 7.1111s 1.0002
 9.0873
considered as the inverse of the plant model, it may give rise
604.2541 6
to instability or physical unrealizability. In order to overcome 50
P90 e 6.510 s
this problem, the mathematical model of the plant is factored s 2.2986
 8.871s 1.0321
 11.2993
 7
into the minimum phase GM ( s ) and non-minimum phase 50 337.846
e 1.847910 s
P80
 s 2.2038  6.7453s1.0132  7.4275
GM ( s)
components and only the inverse of the minimum
325.2142 7
phase (stable or invertible part) part is considered. This 50
P70 e 2.34310 s
eliminates the instability from the controller to be designed. s 2.1969
 7.1459 s 1.0113
 8.3167
Further in order to eliminate any physical unrealizability
from the controller a suitable filter F ( s) is attached to the
inverse plant model as shown in (3), (4) and (5).

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3rd International Conference on Electrical, Electronics, Engineering Trends, Communication, Optimization and Sciences (EEECOS)-2016

IV. PROPOSED IMC DESIGN PROCEDURE From (2), (11) and (12) the IMC based feedback controller is
FOR PHWR obtained as given in eq.(13),

For designing a model based controller it is very important s 2.0971  8.1944s1.0036  7.7684
C (s)  . (13)
to have a mathematical model of the system. In this paper, 1522.8947 s
various combinations of the different initial powers of the
PHWR and the rod drop levels are considered. The The above controller can be written in the form:
mathematical models for the PHWR under these different
s 2.0971 8.1944s1.0036 7.7684
operating conditions are illustrated in Table 1. The C ( s)    . (14)

subscripts of the variable P denote the initial power level 1522.8947 s 1522.8947 s 1522.8947 s
while the superscript denotes the level up to which the rod is
30
By selecting a suitable value of  , the controller in eq.(14)
dropped. For example, P100 indicates that the initial power can be transformed into the conventional FOPID form given
of the plant is 100% and the control rod is dropped to a level in eq.(6). Here   1.0036 and   0.5 is chosen. On
of 30% of its height. substituting these values in eq.(14), the controller takes the
For designing the IMC based fractional order PID controller form given in eq.(15),
the highest gain mathematical model is taken into 0.00512
30
consideration. This condition is denoted by P100 in Table 1. C(s)  0.0013s1.0935  0.0108  . (15)
s0.0102
Therefore, in this case, the mathematical model of the On comparing the controller obtained in eq.(15) with the
system is as given below [9]: conventional FOPID form given in (16) below [41]:
1522.8947 12
GM (s)  e2.004310 . (6) k
CF  s   k p  i  k d s  (16)
2.0971
s  8.1944s 1.0036
 7.7684 s
Following the conventional IMC approach described in the We get, k p  0.0108 , ki  0.0102 ,   1.0036 , kd  0.0013 and
previous section, the plant model GM ( s) is factorized into
  1.0935 .
invertible and non-invertible parts represented as:
Therefore, the final FOIMC-PID controller is obtained as
GM (s)  GM  (s)GM  (s) . (7) given below in eq.(17):
Where, GM  (s) and GM  (s) represent the non- invertible 0.0102
CFOIMC  PID (s)  0.0108   0.0013s1.0935 . (17)
and invertible parts of the plant, respectively. Here the s1.0036
invertible part is obtained as given in eq.(8),
1522.8947 V. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS And
GM  (s)  . (8)
s2.0971  8.1944s1.0036  7.7684 RESULTS
The IMC controller Q(s) is defined as:
In this section, the comparison of the performances of the
1 proposed fractional order IMC-PID (FOIMC-PID) controller
Q(s)  GM  (s) F (s) , (9) and the conventional FOPID controller has been done on the
1
basis of various integral error criterions i.e. Integral Square
where GM  (s) is the inverse of the invertible part of the Error (ISE), Integral Absolute Error (IAE) and Integral Time
plant model and F(s) is a suitable filter. In this case the Absolute Error (ITAE). It is illustrated in Table 2. From the
data of Table 2 it is clear that the proposed FOIMC-PID
filter is chosen of the form as given in eq.(10) [40], controller gives better results as compared to the FOPID
1 suggested in [9]. The response of the FOPID and FOIMCPID
F (s)  , (10)
 s  1 controllers for unity step back under various operating
conditions is illustrated in Fig.3. It can be observed from
where  is the filter constant and  is any real number that Fig.3 that when a negative step input of unity magnitude is
can be arbitrarily chosen. Therefore from (8), (9) and (10), supplied to the system, the FOIMCPID controller designed
using the proposed approach gives a faster set point tracking
1 s 2.0971  8.1944s1.0036  7.7684 response than the FOPID controllers available in the
Q(s)  GM  (s) F (s) 
 
. (11)
1522.8947  s  1 literature [9]. This indicates that the proposed controller
possesses excellent capability to work efficiently even under
Further, from (6) and (11), the varying operating environment.

1 Further, it may be noted that the IMC-FOPID controller

GM ( s )Q( s )  . (12)

s 1 proposed here is designed by taking into consideration the
30
highest gain model i.e. P100 and then subjected to variable

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3rd International Conference on Electrical, Electronics, Engineering Trends, Communication, Optimization and Sciences (EEECOS)-2016

operating conditions. From the responses illustrated in Fig.

3, it can be seen that the proposed controller gives improved
response for all the different operating conditions. Hence it
can be concluded that the proposed controller is robust
enough to perform well under all possible variable operating
conditions.
Thus, the method proposed in this paper helps in
formulating an efficient fractional order IMC based PID
controller for the fractional order models of the PHWR. It is
seen that the proposed controller performs better than the
conventional fractional order PID controller available in the
literature [9].
Hence, the objective of formulating a fractional order
IMCPID controller which can give a better response and is
more robust in comparison to the existing controllers is
fulfilled successfully.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, an IMC based fractional order PID controller is
designed for the pressurized heavy water reactor plant. In
this work, an attempt is made to improve the performance of
the PHWR plant under step back condition for different
operating conditions by combining the advantageous
properties of internal model control and fractional order
control strategies. This is useful because the proposed
technique is mathematically very simple and gives better
performance than the conventional FOPID controller given
in the literature. The design simplicity of the proposed
technique can prove to be very beneficial for engineering
practitioners working with real time systems. The
implementation and testing of the proposed controller in real
time can be considered as the future scope of this work.

0.2
P30-100 with FOPID
P30-100 with FOIMCPID
0 P30-90 with FOPID
P30-90 with FOIMCPID
P30-80 with FOPID
-0.2 P30-80 with FOIMCPID
P50-100 with FOPID
P50-100 with FOIMCPID
Amplitude

-0.4 P50-90 with FOPID

P50-90 with FOIMCPID
P50-80 with FOPID
-0.6 P50-80 with FOIMCPID
P50-70 with FOPID
P50-70 with FOIMCPID
-0.8 P30-70 with FOPID
P30-70 with FOIMCPID

-1

-1.2
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Time
Fig.3. Unit step back response of FOPID and FOIMCPID
controllers for the PHWR plant for various operating
conditions.

Table 2. Performance indices for the FOPID and FOIMCPID controllers.

Model Controller ISE IAE ITAE
FOPID [9] 0.5254 1.044 2.439
P100
30
Proposed FOIMCPID 0.2723 0.4963 0.7563
FOPID [9] 0.5826 1.153 2.786
P9030
Proposed FOIMCPID 0.3008 0.5518 0.8672
FOPID [9] 0.6489 1.282 3.231
P8030
Proposed FOIMCPID 0.3336 0.6203 1.029
FOPID [9] 0.739 1.456 3.844
P7030
Proposed FOIMCPID 0.3764 0.7115 1.235
FOPID [9] 1.583 3.185 13.01
P100
50
Proposed FOIMCPID 0.7655 1.659 4.788
FOPID [9] 1.711 3.449 14.99
P9050
Proposed FOIMCPID 0.7655 1.659 4.788
FOPID [9] 2.08 4.049 19.29
P8050
Proposed FOIMCPID 1.031 2.12 6.845

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 3rd International Conference on Electrical, Electronics, Engineering Trends, Communication, Optimization and Sciences (EEECOS)-2016
FOPID [9]
P7050
Proposed FOIMCPID
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