Computational Fluid Dynamic Control

This paper presents a general technique for modeling fluid, or gas, dynamic systems specifically for the development of control systems. Essentially the numerical methods which are generally used in computational fluid dynamics are borrowed to create either continuous-time or discrete-time models of the particular fluid system. The resulting equations can be either left in a nonlinear form, or be easily linearized about an operating point. As there are typically very many states in these systems, the usual linear model reduction methods can be used on them to allow a low order controller to be designed. A simple example is given which typifies many internal flow control problems. The resulting control approach will be termed Computational Fluid Dynamic Control (CFD-C).