Feedback control of natural convection Original Research Article

An applicable method is developed for the identification and feedback control of natural convection. The Boussinesq equation is reduced to a small set of ordinary differential equations by means of the Karhunen–Loève Galerkin procedure [Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 39 (1996) 3311]. Based on this low-dimensional dynamic model, a feedback control synthesis is constructed by first performing an extended Kalman filter estimate of the velocity and temperature fields to treat the measurement errors and then developing the optimal feedback law by means of the linear quadratic regulator theory. The present method allows for the practical implementation of modern control concepts to many flow systems including natural convection.