Thermoacoustic instabilities in combustion processes can have adverse effec
ts on system performance. In this paper we formulate the problem of active
control of combustion instabilities in a form that lends itself to the appl
ication of robust feedback control design. Using an uncertain state-space c
ombustion system model, the parameter-dependent Lyapunov function framework
for robust fixed-order controller design developed by Haddah and Bernstein
is used to design high-performance reduced-order robust controllers for su
ppressing thermoacoustic oscillations in combustion chambers. (C) 2000 The
Franklin Institute. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd, All rights reserved.