Robust stability of thermal control systems with uncertain parameters: The graphical analysis examples

Abstract This paper is intended to present the investigation of robust stability for integer order or fractional order feedback control loops affected by parametric uncertainty and time-delay(s) with special emphasis on the thermal control systems. The applied graphical method is based on the numerical calculations of the value sets and the zero exclusion condition. Three robust stability examples inspired by control of the real-world thermal processes are used for demonstration of the technique applicability. Namely, the work deals with the analysis of a shell-and-tube heat exchanger which was identified as the (integer order) time-delay model with parametric uncertainty, a heat transfer process modeled as the fractional order time-delay plant with parametric uncertainty, and a heating–cooling system with a heat exchanger described by the anisochronic model with internal delays and parametric uncertainty.