22 papers on control of nonlinear partial differential equations highlight the area from a broad variety of viewpoints. They comprise theoretical considerations such as optimality conditions, relaxation, or stabilizability theorems, as well as the development and evaluation of new algorithms. A significant part of the volume is devoted to applications in engineering, continuum mechanics and population biology.

22 papers on control of nonlinear partial differential equations highlight the area from a broad variety of viewpoints. They comprise theoretical considerations such as optimality conditions, relaxation, or stabilizability theorems, as well as the development and evaluation of new algorithms. A significant part of the volume is devoted to applications in engineering, continuum mechanics and population biology.

Research in control and estimation of distributed parameter systems encompasses a wide range of applications including both fundamental science and emerging technologies. The latter include smart materials (piezoceramics, shape memory alloys, magnetostrictives, electrorheological fluids) fabrication and testing, design of high-pressure chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reactors for production of microelectronic surfaces (e.g., semiconductors), while the former include groundwater contamination cleanup and other environmental modeling questions, climatology, flow control, and fluid-structure interactions as well as more traditional topics in biology, mechanics, and acoustics. These expository papers provide substantial stimulus to both young researchers and experienced investigators in control theory. Includes a comprehensive and lucid presentation that relates frequency domain techniques to state-space or time domain approaches for infinite-dimensional systems including design of robust stabilizing and finite-dimensional controllers for infinite-dimensional systems. It focuses on these two approaches to control design in an integrated system theoretic framework. This is excellent reading for researchers in both the frequency domain and time domain control communities. In other articles, topics considered include pointwise control of distributed parameter systems, bounded and unbounded sensors and actuators, stabilization issues for large flexible structures, and an overview discussion of damping models for flexible structures.

An examination of progress in mathematical control theory applications. It provides analyses of the influence and relationship of nonlinear partial differential equations to control systems and contains state-of-the-art reviews, including presentations from a conference co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Institute of Mathematics a

The purpose of this volume is to provide a brief review of the previous work on model reduction and identifi cation of distributed parameter systems (DPS), and develop new spatio-temporal models and their relevant identifi cation approaches. In this book, a systematic overview and classifi cation on the modeling of DPS is presented fi rst, which includes model reduction, parameter estimation and system identifi cation. Next, a class of block-oriented nonlinear systems in traditional lumped parameter systems (LPS) is extended to DPS, which results in the spatio-temporal Wiener and Hammerstein systems and their identifi cation methods. Then, the traditional Volterra model is extended to DPS, which results in the spatio-temporal Volterra model and its identification algorithm. All these methods are based on linear time/space separation. Sometimes, the nonlinear time/space separation can play a better role in modeling of very complex processes. Thus, a nonlinear time/space separation based neural modeling is also presented for a class of DPS with more complicated dynamics. Finally, all these modeling approaches are successfully applied to industrial thermal processes, including a catalytic rod, a packed-bed reactor and a snap curing oven. The work is presented giving a unifi ed view from time/space separation. The book also illustrates applications to thermal processes in the electronics packaging and chemical industry. This volume assumes a basic knowledge about distributed parameter systems, system modeling and identifi cation. It is intended for researchers, graduate students and engineers interested in distributed parameter systems, nonlinear systems, and process modeling and control.

Consisting of 16 refereed original contributions, this volume presents a diversified collection of recent results in control of distributed parameter systems. Topics addressed include - optimal control in fluid mechanics - numerical methods for optimal control of partial differential equations - modeling and control of shells - level set methods - mesh adaptation for parameter estimation problems - shape optimization Advanced graduate students and researchers will find the book an excellent guide to the forefront of control and estimation of distributed parameter systems.