Reachability of particle size distribution in emulsion batch polymerization under mid-course correction policies

Rigorous reachability analysis is largely an open problem for nonlinear distributed systems. A programming-based reachability analysis is proposed to address nominal and perturbed systems, with the final distributed variables characterized as multi-Gaussian distributions. An application study is detailed for the feedback control of particle size distribution in emulsion polymerization, where the particulate system is described by population balance models. The approach has been applied to a semibatch styrene emulsion polymerization process. The re-mapping of the reachable region in the case of mid-course correction shows the best performance achievable through in-batch control action.