Inner feedback robust control of a laboratory heat exchanger

Abstract

Controller design for a laboratory circuit heating plant with model feedback delays by means of a branched control system in a robust sense is the aim of this contribution. The reader is concisely acquainted with a mathematical model of then plant that includes all significant delays and latencies first; hence, the model is infinite-dimensional. Relevant algebraic tools, namely, a special ring quasipolynomial functions, Bézout identity and particular controller parameterizations for a feedback control system with additional inner loop follow. Although the controller structure is fixed, its parameters are eventually tuned by introduced robustness principles in order to meet robust stability and performance. For the practical implementation, rather complex controllers’ laws, which are of a delayed nature, are simplified by a rationalization and their discrete-time formulation is suggested as well. The results are verified by simulations in MATLAB® and Simulink®. All the obtained results are promising for a future real-life implementation of the presented approach. © 2016, North Atlantic University Union. All rights reserved.