This volume presents state-of-the-art methods for the synthesis of nonlinear and robust feedback controllers for transport-reaction processes. It should be a useful resource for chemical engineers, control engineers and mechanical engineers. The interest in control of nonlinear partial differential equation (PDE) systems has been triggered by the need to achieve tight distributed control of transport-reaction processes which exhibit strong spatial variations. Drawing from advances in dynamics of PDE systems and nonlinear control theory, control of nonlinear PDEs has evolved into a very active research area of systems and control. This volume presents general methods for the synthesis of nonlinear and robust feedback controllers for broad classes of nonlinear PDE systems and illustrates their applications to transport-reaction processes of industrial interest. The controllers use a finite number of measurement sensors and control actuators to achieve stabilization of the closed-loop system, output tracking and attenuation of the effect of model uncertainty.
Beginning with an introduction to control of PDE sy stems, the book discusses nonlinear and robust control of hyperbolic and parabolic PDEs with fixed spatial domains and parabolic PDEs with time-dependent spatial domains. The synthesis of the controllers is performed by using geometric and Lyapunov-based control techniques. The book includes comparisons of the methods followed for controller synthesis with other approaches and discussions of practical implementation issues that can help researchers and engineers understand the development and application of the methods in greater depth.