A CFD assisted control system design with applications to NO x control in a FGR furnace

In this paper, a novel technique to design control systems for industrial processes with non-linear distributed parameters is proposed. The technique utilizes computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation to extract the most essential characteristics from the non-linear industrial process, and then represent them as a set of linear dynamic models around a specific operating point. Based on the linear dynamic representation, a closed-loop feedback linear control system can be designed to maintain the desired performance for the system around the chosen operating point. To illustrate such a design process, an industrial reheating furnace with flue gas recirculation (FGR) is selected herein. The method involves the numerical solution of the partial differential equations describing the fluid flow, heat transfer and combustion process in the furnace. The resulting dynamic relations between the furnace inputs and outputs can then be represented in terms of a multi-input and multi-output transfer function matrix. The objective of the control system is then to maintain the optimally selected furnace operating conditions and compensate for any deviations caused by disturbances to minimize the nitric oxides (NO x ) emission through feedback mechanisms. The performance of the closed-loop controlled furnace is evaluated not only in the linear domain, but also with the detailed full-scale non-linear CFD model. The results have shown that the proposed method is viable and the designed control system can indeed minimize the deviation of the furnace from the desired operating conditions and hence to prevent any excessive NO x formation in the combustion process.