Guaranteed Steady-State Bounds for Uncertain Chemical Processes

Jan Hasenauer1,  Philipp Rumschinski2,  Steffen Waldherr1,  Steffen Borchers2,  Frank Allgoewer1,  Rolf Findeisen3
1Institute for Systems Theory and Automatic Control, University of Stuttgart, Germany, 2Institute for Automation Engineering, Otto-von-Guericke-Universitaet Magdeburg, Germany, 3Institute for Automation Engineering, Universitaet Magdeburg, Germany


Abstract

Analysis and safety considerations of chemical and biological processes frequently require an outer approximation of the set of all feasible steady-states. Nonlinearities, uncertain parameters, and discrete variables complicate the calculation of guaranteed outer bounds. In this paper, the problem of outer-approximating the region of feasible steady-states, for processes described by uncertain nonlinear differential algebraic equations including discrete variables and discrete changes in the dynamics, is adressed. The calculation of the outer bounding sets is based on a relaxed version of the corresponding feasibility problem. It uses the Lagrange dual problem to obtain certificates for regions in state space not containing steady-states. These infeasibility certificates can be computed efficiently by solving a semidefinite program, rendering the calculation of the outer bounding set computationally feasible. The derived method guarantees globally valid outer bounds for the steady-states of nonlinear processes described by differential equations. It allows to consider discrete variables, as well as switching system dynamics. The method is exemplified by the analysis of a simple chemical reactor showing parametric uncertainties and large variability due to the appearance of bifurcations characterising the ignition and extinction of a reaction.