Model reference adaptive controller to regulate sample temperature in microwave heating application

Microwave (MW) energy is a promising energy in industrial heating process as a novel, clean and efficient energy source. However, physical parameter and dielectric property in the process are time-varying and the relationship between input MW power and output temperature of microwave heating process is nonlinear. Consequently, it is difficult to design a good temperature controller and simultaneously sustain the desired transient performance. Due to the problems existing in previous bang-bang temperature control method systems, such as chattering phenomenon and low robustness, this paper presents the temperature control method for MW heating system by using Model Reference Adaptive Control (MRAC) to adjust the MW power. The direct MRAC with unnormalized adaptive law is tested and analyzed to the MW heating model. The simulation result shows that, with proper selection of adaptation gain and reference model, MRAC method has capabilities to provide anticipant temperature regulating performance.