ROBUST FAULT DETECTION AND HANDLING IN CONTROL OF UNCERTAIN TRANSPORT-REACTION PROCESSES

Abstract

This paper presents an integrated robust fault detection and fault-tolerant control architecture for transport-reaction processes modeled by quasi-linear parabolic partial differential equations with uncertain variables, control constraints and control actuator faults. Using an appropriate reduced-order model that captures the dominant process dynamics, the proposed architecture comprises a family of robustly stabilizing bounded feedback controllers with explicitly characterized stability and uncertainty attenuation properties, a performance- based fault detection scheme and a high-level supervisor that reconfigures the control actuators upon fault detection in a way that maintains robust closed-loop stability. The key idea is to shape the closed-loop performance via robust control in a way that facilitates the design of robust fault detection rules that are less sensitive to the adverse effects of uncertainty. The results are demonstrated using a non-isothermal tubular reactor example with recycle.