Towards incremental control structure optimisation for process control

This paper deals with the optimisation of control structures for multivariable process control systems. Incremental optimisation of control structures is the task of improving the performance of an existing control structure by incrementally introducing or removing dynamic connections in the control structure. A preliminary method for the detection of an improving structural change in an existing control structure is presented. The method is applied to the control of a pulverized coal injection process to show its validity and has proven to give good results.