Observer-based event-triggered boundary control of the one-phase Stefan problem

Abstract

This paper presents an observer-based event-triggered boundary control strategy for the one-phase Stefan problem, utilising the position and velocity measurements of the moving interface. The design of the observer and controller is founded on the infinite-dimensional backstepping approach. To implement the continuous-time observer-based controller in an event-triggered framework, we propose a dynamic event triggering condition. This condition specifies the instances when the control input must be updated. Between events, the control input is maintained constant in a Zero-Order-Hold manner. We demonstrate that the dwell-time between successive triggering moments is uniformly bounded from below, thereby precluding Zeno behaviour. The proposed event-triggered boundary control strategy ensures the well-posedness of the closed-loop system and the satisfaction of certain model validity conditions. Additionally, the global exponential convergence of the closed-loop system to the setpoint is established using Lyapunov approach. A simulation example is provided to validate the theoretical findings.