Flatness based control of a nonlinear chemical reactor model

The nonlinear model of a continuous stirred tank reactor is shown to be flat. The flatness permits the design of suitable trajectories on the basis of the explicit stationary solution and the tracking of these trajectories asymptotically using quasi-static state feedback linearization. A nonlinear local observer with a time-varying gain is designed allowing the realisation of the state feedback in the case of partial measurement of the state. Simulation results illustrate the tracking behavior of the closed loop with the observer.