Fast model predictive control of sheet and film processes

Sheet and film processes are prevalent in the chemical and pulp and paper industries, and include paper coating, polymer film extrusion, and papermaking. A model predictive control algorithm is developed which is based on an off-line singular value decomposition of the plant. The input constraints are approximated by an ellipsoid whose size is optimized online to reduce conservatism. The controller has a structure proven to be robust to model inaccuracies and is computationally efficient enough for real-time implementation on large scale sheet and film processes (e.g., manipulated variable settings computed for 200 actuators in less than ten CPU seconds). The algorithm is applied to a paper machine model constructed from industrial data.