Furnace Modelling Using State Space Representation

Abstract

The state space modeling approach was developed to cope with the demand and performance due to the increase in system complexity, which may have multiple inputs and multiple outputs (MIMO). This approach is based on time domain analysis and synthesis using state variables. This paper describes the development of a state space representation of a furnace system of a combined cycle power plant. Power plants will need to operate optimally so as to stay competitive, as even a small improvement in energy efficiency would involve substantial cost savings. Both the quantitative and qualitative analyses of the state space representation of the furnace system are discussed. These include the responses of systems excited by certain inputs and the structural properties of the system. The analysis on the furnace system showed that the system is bounded input and bounded output stable, controllable and observable. In practice, the state space formulation is very important for numerical computation and controller design, and can be extended for time-varying systems.