Integral action for bilinear systems with application to counter current heat exchanger

TL;DR

This paper develops and experimentally validates a robust integral control strategy for a bilinear model of a counter-current heat exchanger, effectively regulating outlet temperature through flow rate manipulation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel integral control approach tailored for bilinear systems in heat exchangers, validated with real-world experiments.

Findings

Effective temperature regulation achieved in experiments

Robust control strategy demonstrated for bilinear heat exchanger models

Integral control outperforms traditional methods in stability and accuracy

Abstract

In this study, we propose a robust control strategy for a counter-current heat exchanger. The primary objective is to regulate the outlet temperature of one fluid stream by manipulating the flow rate of the second counter-current fluid stream. By leveraging the energy balance equations, we develop a structured bilinear system model derived by using a uniform spatial discretization of each stream into a cascade of homogeneous volumes and by considering the heat transfer and convective phenomena within the exchanger. We introduce two control strategies: (i) an output feedback controller incorporating a state observer and (ii) a purely integral control law. The effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is validated through real experiments on a real heat exchanger.