Output tracking control of a parallel-flow heat exchange process

In this paper, we consider an output tracking problem of a parallel-flow heat exchange process with distributed and boundary inputs. As the distributed inputs to the system, the output feedback control is first applied. Under zero boundary inputs, it is shown that the C 0 -semigroup describing the closed-loop system satisfies the spectrum determined growth condition. Next, we apply a backstepping method to the design of the boundary inputs for output tracking. Our main result shows that the output of the system reaches a reference signal in finite time under both the output feedback control and the boundary control law derived by the backstepping method.