D.4 Non-linear dynamics and control

Near optimal productivity many plants exhibit complex non-linear behaviours which often give rise to complex control problems. The objectives of this project are to elucidate some typical complex behaviours encountered in chemical processes and to investigate measures for preventing undesirable behaviour through modified process or control design. Several cases have been preliminarily investigated as far as the first purpose is concerned and complex behaviours have been encountered in, e.g. recycle fixed bed reactors, continuous cultivation reactors and in azeotropic distillation sequences.
The future research will also include investigation of how to deal with the encountered types of non-linear behaviours including non-linear control designs.