Simulation and control of distributed parameter systems

Abstract

The present work is an attempt to put together the most relevant aspects of the engineering problems involving distributed parameter systems (D.P.S.'s). Simulation and optimal control are explained in detail in Chapters II and III. The original contribution of this thesis is given in Chapters V and VI, where modal control theory and a gradient subroutine that searches for the optimal reference coefficients are used. As a result, it was possible to obtain an output distribution better than the one achievable by the known methods. This technique works in situations of strongly nonlinear control and compensates the effect of having the analyzer and synthesizer approximated by low order matrices. It also makes it possible to give higher weight to some zones of the output distribution in order to have a better local fit. The necessary background for understanding Chapters V and VI is given in Chapter IV.