Vibrational control of chaotic self-sustained oscillations during CO oxidation on a RhSiO2 catalyst

Vibrational control was applied to suppress the self-sustained oscillations during CO oxidation on a Rh/SiO2 catalyst wafer. Using the appropriate external sinusoidal vibration on the CO and O2 flow rate, the amplitude of CO2 concentration oscillations was reduced to one-tenth of the constant feed case and the time-averaged CO2 production increased by 30%. The decrease in the amplitude of the oscillations was accompanied by the suppression of the movement of the thermal patterns, measured by IR thermography, occurring during oscillations. The optimum control is attained at a specific frequency and amplitude of the forced oscillations.