Thesis subject
Optimal reduced-order control applied to drying
Drying is a complicated dynamical process. Industrial drying requires product quality, moisture content and energy consumption to be balanced. A sophisticated first principles state-space model that describes the spatial distribution of moisture in particles enables the product quality to be described much more accurately.
Optimal controllers are able to fully exploit this information and optimally balance between product quality, moisture content and energy. Since the sophisticated first principles model contains many state variables a recently developed digital optimal reduced-order controller design procedure is highly suitable. This research concerns the application of this controller design methodology to see what can be gained from optimal control and the use of sophisticated models compared to the conventional control of dryers. Also the influence of the reduced dimension of the optimal controller on the drying performance will be investigated.
Preferable knowledge of
- SCO-20306 Signals and Systems Modelling
- SCO-31306 Systems and Control Theory
Keywords: Product quality, state-space models, industrial processes, optimal reduced-order control