Model predictive control of combustion oscillations

64 p.Certain combustion processes are inherently unstable due to the coupling of the flame and the acoustic modes of the combustion chamber. Such instabilities lead to oscillating heat release and pressure, which are undesirable. The solution to eliminate these oscillations is to design a controller to monitor the fluctuating pressure upstream and modulate the fuel injection accordingly. In virtue of a recently developed nonlinear model for a premixed ducted flame, we can model the combustion process systematically, apply the Model Predictive Control strategy to synthesize a controller and analyze the resulting closed-loop system. Then we make comparisons with other control strategies. Finally, we investigate the parameters' variation in the combustion process, and the robust analysis is provided in the end.Master of Science (Computer Control and Automation