Nonlinear optimal and multi-loop flatness-based control of induction motor-driven desalination units

Abstract

In this article, the control problem for the induction-motor driven reverse osmosis in desalination units is solved with the use of (i) a nonlinear optimal control method (ii) a flatness-based control approach which is implemented in successive loops. To apply method (i) that is nonlinear optimal control, the dynamic model of the induction-motor driven reverse-osmosis desalination units undergoes approximate linearization at each sampling instant with the use of first-order Taylor series expansion and through the computation of the associated Jacobian matrices. The linearization point is defined by the present value of the system’s state vector and by the last sampled value of the control inputs vector. To compute the feedback gains of the optimal controller an algebraic Riccati equation is repetitively solved at each time-step of the control algorithm. The global stability properties of the nonlinear optimal control method are proven through Lyapunov analysis. To implement control method (ii), that is flatness-based control in successive loops, the state-space model of the induction-motor driven reverse-osmosis desalination unit is separated into three subsystems, which are connected in cascading loops. Each one of these subsystems can be viewed independently as a differentially flat system and control about it can be performed with inversion of its dynamics as in the case of input–output linearized flat systems. The state variables of the preceding (ith) subsystem become virtual control inputs for the subsequent (i+1th) subsystem. In turn, exogenous control inputs are applied to the first and third subsystem. The whole control method is implemented in three successive loops and its global stability properties are also proven through Lyapunov stability analysis. The proposed method achieves stabilization of the induction-motor-driven reverse osmosis desalination unit without the need of diffeomorphisms and complicated state-space model transformations.