Modeling and Finite-Horizon MPC for a Boiler-Turbine System Using Minimal Realization State-Space Model

This paper aims to address a finite-horizon model predictive control (MPC) for non-linear drum-type boiler-turbine system using a system-identification method. Considering that the strong state coupling of a non-linear mechanism model, the subspace identification method is first utilized to obtain a linear state-space model, and transformed into an input–output model. By taking the inputs and outputs of the input–output model as system states, an augmented non-minimal state-space (NMSS) model of state measurable is constructed. In order to reduce the computation burden, the augmented NMSS model is further transformed into a canonical formulation by adopting a Kalman decomposition. Based on the minimal realization state-space model, the MPC controller is parameterized as a finite-horizon optimization problem. Finally, simulations are performed and evaluated the performance of the proposed method, and the simulation results show that: the linear model approximate the non-linear system accurately; the proposed MPC method can achieve a satisfactory stable control performance; and the computation time 18.388 s for the overall optimization problem also illustrates the real-time performance effectively.