From conservation laws to wave propagation and back -dynamics and control in combined heat/electricity generation∗

Starting from some pioneering papers in distributed parameter control systems for steam turbines and their auxiliaries, a bilinear model for steam turbines with steam extraction and “long” steam pipes was elaborated and the feedback control synthesis has been performed using a suitable control Liapunov functional of quadratic type, both for distributed parameters systems and their lumped parameter approximation. The synthesized control ensures global stabilization of the steady state solution. It has been observed much later that the linearized steam wave propagation equations underlying the model were in fact a simplified linearized version of the conservation laws of the isentropic flow. Following this remark and bearing in mind the recent advances in the control of the systems described by conservation laws, the model of the combined heat electricity generation is re-written as a system which is linear in control; consequently the feedback stabilization also requires re-examination.