State space modeling and robust reduced-order control of combustion instabilities

Thermoacoustic instabilities in combustion processes can have adverse effects on system performance. In this paper we formulate the problem of active control of combustion instabilities in a form that lends itself to the application of robust feedback control design. Using an uncertain state-space combustion system model, the parameter-dependent Lyapunov function framework for robust fixed-order controller design developed by Haddad and Bernstein is used to design high-performance reduced-order robust controllers for suppressing thermoacoustic oscillations in combustion chambers.