Automated synthesis of control configurations for process networks based on structural coupling Seongmin Heo a , W. Alex Marvin b , Prodromos Daoutidis a,∗ a Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA b BASF Corporation, 500 White Plains Road, Tarrytown, NY 10591, USA Abstract In this paper, a method to systematically synthesize control configurations with favorable structural coupling is developed, using relative degree as a measure of such coupling. Initially, an integer optimization problem is formulated to identify optimal distributions of inputs and outputs (decentralized control configurations) that minimize the overall structural coupling in the network. Then, a hierarchical clustering procedure, which allows identifying groups of inputs and outputs that are strongly connected topologically (block decentralized control configurations), is proposed. The application of the method is illustrated through an example process network. Keywords: Control structure selection, Plantwide control, Process networks, Integer programming, Hierarchical clustering 1. Introduction Control structure design, i.e. the selection and pairing of manipulated inputs and controlled outputs, is a classic problem in control that has received a lot of attention in the literature (see e.g. van de Wal and de Jager, 2001). In process control in particular, this problem has been studied extensively in the context of plant- wide control design (see e.g. Rangaiah and Kariwala, 2012). Examples include: (a) heuristics-based approaches whereby the selection and pairing are perfomed following logical rules (e.g. Price and Georgakis, 1993; Ng and Stephanopoulos, 1996; Luyben et al., 1997); (b) the concept of self-optimizing control for selecting controlled outputs * Corresponding author. Email address: daout001@umn.edu (Prodromos Daoutidis) Preprint submitted to Elsevier January 28, 2015 © 2015. This manuscript version is made available under the Elsevier user license http://www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/