Observer-based control of Rijke-type combustion instability

In this work, observer-based feedback control of combustion instability in a Rijke-type thermoacoustic system is considered. A generalized thermoacoustic model with distributed monopole-like actuators is developed. The model is linearized and formulated in state-space and it is assumed that pressure sensors are the only information available for feedback. It is shown that a system of this form is observable. As a Linear-Quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) controller is implemented to tune the actuators, the system becomes asymptotically stable. The performance of the controller is evaluated with a system involving two modes. The successful demonstration indicates that the observer-based feedback controller can be applied to a real combustion system with multiple modes.