Adaptive control strategy for hot water temperature regulation in a water-pipe

The thermal process in the centralised hot water-pipe is highly nonlinear, and its regulation is still complicated by a long, uncertain and variable dead-time in the control loop. The discrete adaptive control strategy based on on-line identification of the most important parameter values and their use for control design is presented. The performances of this control strategy is investigated through a simulation study. Simulation results are presented and show satisfactory results for large variations of the process load.