Single-boundary control of the two-phase Stefan system

Abstract

This paper presents the control design of the two-phase Stefan problem. The two-phase Stefan problem is a representative model of liquid–solid phase transition by describing the time evolutions of the temperature profile, which is divided by subdomains of liquid and solid phases as the liquid–solid moving interface position. The mathematical formulation is given by two diffusion partial differential equations (PDEs) defined on a time-varying spatial domain described by an ordinary differential equation (ODE) driven by the Neumann boundary values of both PDE states, resulting in a nonlinear coupled PDE–ODE–PDE system. We design a state feedback control law by means of energy-shaping to stabilize the interface position to a desired setpoint by using single boundary heat input. We prove that the closed-loop system under the control law ensures some conditions for model validity, and the global exponential stability estimate is shown in the spatial L2 norm. Furthermore, the robustness of the closed-loop stability with respect to the uncertainties of the physical parameters is shown. Numerical simulation is provided to illustrate the desired performance of the proposed control law in comparison to the control design for the one-phase Stefan problem.