Fuzzy damage-mitigating control of a fossil power plant

This paper presents the architecture and synthesis of a damage-mitigating control system where the objective is to achieve high performance with increased reliability, availability, component durability, and maintainability. The proposed control system has a two-tier structure. In the lower tier, a linear robust sampled-data controller tracks a reference trajectory vector while the upper tier contains a fuzzy-logic-based damage controller that makes a tradeoff between system dynamic performance and structural durability in critical component(s). The synthesis procedure is demonstrated on the model of a commercial-scale fossil-fueled power plant under load-following operation. Simulation experiments are designed to explore the feasibility of real-time fuzzy damage-mitigating control in fossil power plants, and the results show that substantial gain in structural durability of a critical component can be achieved with no significant loss of performance.