Nonlinear Dynamics and Control in Process Engineering — Recent Advances

This book of proceedings collects a selection of peer-reviewed articles pre- sented at the DINIP 2000 National Workshop on Nonlinear Dynamics and Control in Process Engineering held in Rome (June 28-30, 2000) and orga- nized by the Center on Disordered Systems and Fractals in Chemical Engi- neering. This Conference was made possible by the logistic support of Uni- versita La Sapienza in Rome, School of Engineering, and by the financial support from the Universita La Sapienza, Rome, Universita Federico II, Naples, and the PRIN 98 Project on Dynamic Optimization and Control of Chemical Processes, supervised by Prof. C. Scali of Universita di Pisa. The aim of this Workshop was to review the state of research underway in Italian academic departments on the application of dynamics and control in process engineering with a view to coordinating future activity and stimu- lating a fruitful exchange of information with researchers involved in related fields such as system engineering, mathematics and physics. The result is a fairly broad examination of several classical and less clas- sical applications. The article by Crescitelli provides an overview of several applications of dynamical analysis and non-linear system theory in process engmeenng.