Model Based Control of Temperature Distribution in Integrated Microchemical Systems

This paper presents the results of finite element method (FEM) simulations of heat-transfer and fluid flow of microchannels. These FEM simulations are used in an actuator placement problem for a microchannel network configuration and in formulating an off line control law with the additional use of proper orthogonal decomposition (POD). In the first part of this paper with the use of FEM simulations we investigate the thermal behavior of different materials in microscale. We propose an actuator placement design that is well suited for microchemical systems. This actuator design coupled with a control action allows variations in the temperature profiles within millimeters. In the second part, we propose a control scheme that is based on a POD of the temperature profiles obtained by FEM simulations. This control scheme uses the optimal eigenfunctions obtained from the POD procedure in a minimization procedure that results in the appropriate change in the manipulated input variables.