Rigorous handling of input saturation in the design of dynamically operable plants

The design of a plant can significantly affect its inherent ability to be satisfactorily controlled. Approaches for incorporating dynamic operability requirements within an optimal design framework have been proposed, where a dynamic model of the plant and its associated control system are included as constraints. This paper focuses on the inclusion of actuator saturation effects in formulations of this type. A mathematical description of actuator saturation that is suitable for incorporation within a simultaneous optimization framework is used. The optimization formulation is presented and its application demonstrated through two case studies.