Optimal Control of the Sterilization of Prepackaged Food

To model the process of sterilization by heating in the food industry, we derive an optimal control problem with state and control constraints governed by a nonlinear heat equation. A discretized form of the problem can then be expressed as a large-scale continuous optimization problem and solved by a special sequential quadratic programming method. The model provides useful insights---for example, when maximizing the retention of vitamins, the computed optimal control differs from the one typically used in industry---and can be generalized.

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