Vibrational control of an exothermic reaction in a CSTR: Theory and experiments

Abstract Vibrational control is a method for modification of dynamic properties of linear and nonlinear systems by introducing fast, zero‐average oscillations in the system's parameters. In this paper, forced oscillations introduced in the input flow rates of an exothermic continuous stirred‐tank reactor (CSTR) are shown to result in a modification of the S‐shaped steady state curve. This modification leads to a possibility of operating a CSTR at an asymptotically stable period regime located in the vicinity of an unstable steady state of the reactor system with stationary input flow rates. Thus, vibrations of the input flow rates can be viewed as a stabilizing mechanism for exothermic CSTR's.