The Optimal Periodic Control of a Continuous Anionic Polymerization with a Non-conventional Objective Functional

Abstract

In a previous publication (Frontini and others (1986)), a suboptimal technique was developed to solve the problem of producing polymers with prespecified values of the number average chain length and the polydispersity, through ‘living’ anionic polymerizations carried out in continuous stirred-tank reactors. The solution of that problem involved the periodic operation of the monomer solution feed and of the initiator solution feed, as well as readjustments in their feed stock concentrations. The present work solves the problem directly, without resorting to laborious “optimization-rescaling” procedures. The objective functional considers not only the polymer quality, but also the required polymer production. Compared to Frontini and others (1986), the present solutions are better and obtained with less computational effort. The proposed technique is applicable to other optimal periodic control problems with non-conventional objective functionals.