An adaptive cascade control for a class of chemical reactors

This paper is addressed to the problem of designing an adaptive cascade controller to stabilize a jacketed continuous chemical reactor whose isothermal dynamics are globally stable. Assuming that the heat generation and transfer models are uncertain, the controller is built on the basis of back-stepping procedure in conjunction with the mass and energy conservation principles that underlie the reactor behaviour. The corresponding closed-loop dynamics are studied yielding a semiglobal stability criterion coupled with a systematic construction-tuning procedure. The resulting cascade controller has aPI-type structure with an antireset windup scheme, and is put in perspective with its industrial-type counterpart. A simulated example is used to illustrate the functioning of the proposed controller. Copyright (C) 2002 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.