Globally stable control systems for processes with input multiplicities

A nonlinear process with input multiplicity has two or more input values for a given output at the steady state, and the process steady state gain changes its sign as the operating point changes. A control system with integral action will be unstable when both signs of the process gain and the controller integral gain are different, and its stability region will be limited to the boundary where the process steady state gain is zero. Unlike processes with output multiplicities, feedback controllers cannot be used to correct the sign changes of process gain. To remove such stability limitation, a simple control system with parallel compensator is proposed. The parallel compensator can be easily designed based on the process steady state gain information and tuned in the field. Using the two time scale method, the stability of proposed control systems for processes with input multiplicities can be checked.