Robust and Gain-Scheduled PID Controller Design for Condensing Boilers by Linear Programming

This paper addresses the water temperature control in condensing domestic boilers. The main challenge of this process under the controller design perspective is the fact that the dynamics of condensing boilers are strongly affected by the demanded water flow rate. Two approaches are presented in this paper. First, a robust PI controller is designed that stabilizes and achieves good performance for closed-loop system for a wide range of the water flow rate. Then, it is shown that if the water flow rate information is used to update the controller gains, a technique known as gain-scheduled control, the performance can be significantly improved. Several models of a boiler in different water flow rate are identified in collaboration with Honeywell, and the effectiveness of the results are illustrated by simulation.