LQR Control of Moisture Distribution in Microwave Drying Process Based on a Finite Element Model of Parabolic PDEs

The microwave drying process is a widely used technology in the drying of porous dielectric materials. Designing a controller for moisture distribution in this process can improve product quality and reduce energy consumption and production time. In this paper, a model-based controller for moisture distribution in an industrial microwave drying process is developed. The moisture and temperature in this process are described by a pair of partial differential equations (PDEs) and have both temporal and spatial variations. In this view, using a semi-discrete finite element approximation, the coupled system of PDEs is transformed into a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Based on the discretized ODEs, a linear quadratic regulator (LQR) controller is designed to determine the power levels of multiple microwave sources in this process to reach and maintain the desired moisture level. Numerical simulations are carried out in three different drying scenarios. The results show that the proposed controller achieves a very good performance in tracking the desired moisture level. Copyright (C) 2020 The Authors.