BSC 315: PROCESS CONTROL AND ANALYSIS (3 CU)

Course outline: Introduction to control systems Dynamic process models Stability Assessment Feedback and feedforward control strategies Design and tuning of closed loop controllers Time domain and frequency domain design and performance assessment methods Multivariable systems, interaction, multi-loop control Software for process simulation and controller design Application to automation control in industry Reference Books William L. Luyben: Process modelling, simulation and control for Chemical Engineers McGraw-Hill International Editions. Chemical Engineering Series Useful software Matlab and simulink

Introduction
Chemical units in a chemical engineering plant
Reactors, distillation columns, pumps, Compressors etc To constitute a chemical plant, we have to assemble a few or several of these units Objective of a Chemical plant

Raw materials

Plant

Products

The chemical plant must fulfil this goal in the most efficient, safe and economical way Requirements that the plant must fulfil 1. Safety For example, if a reactor is designed to operate at a pressure not exceeding 100 psi, there is need for means of intervention to keep the pressure below 100 psi

2. Production specifications A process must produce the desired quality and quantity of products. The design goal is therefore to maintain the required quality and quantity 3. Environmental requirements A chemical plant must satisfy standing local, state and international laws, especially with regard to: nature of products, emissions, effluent streams, waste water, and other types of pollution. 4. Operational constraints Plants have constraints inherent to their operation, e.g. - distillation column should not be flooded - tanks should not overflow or go dry - temperature of a catalytic reactor should not exceed the upper limit 5. Economics Maintain operating conditions at a given optimum level of: - minimum operating cost - maximum profit (Judicious use of raw materials and other inputs - energy and labour) It becomes obvious that a give process/plant to fulfil all the above requirements, some means of external intervention (Control mechanism) is necessary and this is the essence of process control.

In designing a control system, the following three important issues have to be addressed
Influence of external disturbances Stability of a chemical process Performance of a chemical process

The aim/goal of a controller is to: - suppress the influence of external disturbances - ensure the stability of the process - optimize the performance of the chemical process We have to design a control system which satisfies the above issues A. External disturbances
Consider the case of a heating-stirred tank system
Fi, Ti Stirrer

Objective(s) of the process

- maintain liquid temp (T) at Tr - Maintain the height of the liquid h at hr

h
F, T

- (Tr and hr are the required liquid temp and liquid height respectively

Fst

Steam

Assumption: After start-up, process reaches steady-state after sometime. If non of the input variables changes, there is no need of a control system however, this is hardly the case in practice. How can we ensure T = Tr and h = hr? T can be measured with a thermocouple, and h with a level sensor
Fi, Ti
Thermocouple T Tr +

Stirrer

e = Tr T e > 0; Tr > T more steam/Increase Fst reduce Fst

h
F, T
e < 0; Tr < T
The error signal (e) is fed to the controller which calculates the control action and implements the necessary action through the value

Fst

Controller

Steam

Disturbances Fi and T
Suppose only Fi changes (external disturbance) while Fst and Ti. If T decreases, the controller will increase Fst.

B. Stability of the Chemical Process

Case I
x

t0

Time (t)

Let us assume that the process is initially at steady-state (SS), then x is disturbed at t = to If x automatically returns to the SS, the process is said to be stable or self-regulating In this case, there is no need for external intervention, that is, there is no need for a controller

Case II
x

t0

Time (t)

Classification of variables
There are essentially two types of variables namely: input variables and output variables

Variables

Input variables
Disturbance/Load Variable (LV) Manipulated/Control Variable (MV)

Output variables
Measured output Unmeasured output

NOTE: DONT confuse a control variable with a controlled variable (CV)

Most times, the measured output variable is the controlled variable, and only occasionally, it can also be the unmeasured variable.

Example
Consider a simple liquid tank system

Fi

Objective of the process h = hr In this case, the controlled variable (CV) is h Input variables: Fi, (Fo) Output variables: F, h Fo

x does not return to the steady-state, in this case, the process is said to be unstable, and there is need for external intervention, that is, there is need for a controller. However, we can not conclude that case I does not need a controller at all because we have only considered one kind of possible disturbance.

C. Optimize the performance of process

If the operational safety and production specifications of a chemical process have been fulfilled, the next objective if to make the operation profitable. Consider a jacketed continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) which is converts a reactant A to products B (desired) and C (undesired).
Reactant

Two consecutive exothermic reactions. Product The role of the coolant is to out heat from the exothermic reaction

The economic objective of this process is to maximize the profit. Profit =

f ( B, A, coolant)

The process has to be optimally controlled to achieve this objective.

Classification of variables
There are essentially two types of variables namely: input variables and output variables

Variables

Input variables
Disturbance/Load Variable (LV) Manipulated/Control Variable (MV)

Output variables
Measured output Unmeasured output

NOTE: DONT confuse a control variable with a controlled variable

Most times, the measured output variable is the controlled variable, and only occasionally, it can also be the unmeasured variable.

Example
Consider a simple liquid tank system

Fi

Objective of the process h = hr In this case, the controlled variable (CV) is h Input variables: Fi, (Fo) Output variables: F, h What are the CV - MV pairs?

Fo

CV

MV

Fi, (Fo)

Suppose Fo is the manipulated variable, what will be the control configuration?

Fi
Level sensor

e = hr h
- h Error signal fed to the controller which implements the control action to the value

Controller Fo

+ hr

Therefore, if Fo is the manipulated variable, the it is an input variable because a manipulated variable is an example of an input variable.

Example II
Consider the example of a heating tank system

Objective
Fi, Ti T = Tr h = hr What are the MV and CV pairs?

T
MV F, T Fst F, Fi LV (F) CV T h

Fst
MV

Input variables: Fi, Fst, Ti,

Output variables: F, T, h

Control configurations
In this section, we shall discuss different control configurations, which include, feedback, feedforward, and inferential control. Consider the example of distillation, which is a little more complex.

Feedback control
In this control configuration, the controlled variable is measured

Condenser Top tray

Reflux drum Or reflux accumulator

F Z Comparator

Distillate (D, xD)

Analyzer xD F = feed flow rate Z = composition of the feed (mole fraction) R = reflux flow D = flow rate of the distillate xD = composition of the distillate (mole fraction)

e
xDr +

bottoms (B, xD) (bottom product) Reboiler

Objective xD = xDr
Controlled variable

Control configuration (see previous diagram) CV MV xD R

Feedforward control configuration In this case, the disturbance variable or load variable is measured For the example of the distillation column discussed above, there are two disturbance variables.

Feedforward
controller Condenser e Zr + - Z Comp analyzer F Z

Top tray

Reflux drum Or reflux accumulator

Distillate (D, xD)

bottoms (B, xD) (bottom product) Reboiler

Therefore, in the feedforward control configuration, the disturbance variable is measured

Inferential control scheme

Most product composition analyzers have large delays in the response, and are associated with high investment and maintenance costs. Therefore, in the inferential control scheme, the controlled variable is not directly measured but rather inferred from secondary measurements. In this case, the unmeasured output is a function of secondary measurements.
Condenser
T1 T2 T3

controller

xD
Estimator F Z

Distillate (D, xD)

bottoms (B, xD) (bottom product) Reboiler

It is easier to measure temperature using thermocouples than measure composition.

The estimator uses inbuilt algorithms to estimate the composition of the controlled variable HARDWARE ELEMENTS OF A CONTROL SYSTEM To discuss this topic, let us consider the heating tank system Fi, Ti Thermocouple - T Tr
+

Objective: maintain the temp

of the tank using the steam flow rate, Fst

T
F, T

The controller calculates the control action and implements it through the valve

comparator

Fst

Controller Hardware components involved in the closed loop system

1. The Process in this process, physical and chemical process occur

2. Measuring instruments or sensors these are used to measure, the LV, CV and secondary output

CV
T

MV
Fst

Measuring devices for different variables

Variable
Temp Pressure

Sensor
Thermocouple, resistance thermometer (Hg thermometer not suitable) Manometer, diaphragm element Orifice meter, venturi

Flow Liquid level

Composition

Differential pressure (DP) cell

Chromatographic methods

These will be dealt with in detail in the instrumentation course 3. Transducers measurements can not be used for control unless they are converted to physical quantities such as voltage, current etc which are easily transmitted. The transducer converts the measurements signal into physical quantities

4. Transmission lines these transmit signals from sensors to controller and from the
controller to the control valve. Sometimes measurements signals are sometimes very weak thus necessity the use of an amplifier

5. The controller this receives the measurement signal from the sensors and then computes
the control action based on the measured value.

6. Final control element (FCE) the control action from the controller is physically
implemented through the final control element, e.g control valve, variable speed pump, variable speed compressor.

7. Recording devices this is used to visualize the plant behaviour through the measured
signals, e.g. video display units (control room).

Dynamic process models

Mathematical modelling

We can represent the experimental set-up represented below mathematically

Input

Experimental set-up

Output

Mathematical model
model If we run the experimental for a given set of inputs, we expect some output. We can represent the experimental set-up above mathematically using the same inputs. If the outputs are close enough, then the model is a good model.

A model is the mathematical representation of a process intended to promote understanding of the real system.
Use of mathematical models in process control 1. To understand the process behaviour input Output

Model

A model must have a solution

Suppose the process is at SS and a change in the disturbance variable is implemented

The change in the LV will induce a transient response we can thus predict the behaviour of the process without performing experiments 2. Training purposes To train operating personnel
For example, we can artificial perturb the process, by say, changing process parameters without interfering with the process. For example, what happens if the pump is not delivering feed to the process, or suppose the reflux rate reduces below its minimum.

3. Selection of control pairs

If we know the model, we can determine CV MV pairs

4. To develop model based controllers the most advanced controllers are based on
models

5. Optimize the process operating conditions to determine the most profitable

operating conditions we need the process model and some economic information

Classification of process models

There are several criteria for classifying process models. We shall focus here on the classification of the process models based on how they are obtained. (1) Theoretical models developed based on the principle of conservation (E.g mass conservation, momentum conservation, energy conservation

(2) Empirical model this is obtained by fitting experimental data. If we have input and output data, we can develop empirical models by correlating the relationship between input and output data
(3) Semi-empirical model or hybrid model is a combination of the theoretical model and the empirical model. Advantages and disadvantages of these models Theoretical model: Adv - it provides physical insight into process behaviour - it is applicable to a wide range of conditions Disad - it is time consuming to develop particularly for complex systems - some model paramers are not readily available, e.g heat transfer coeffcients, mass transfer coefficient

Empirical model: Adv - it is easier to develop by correlating input and output data Disad - applicable to a narrow range of conditions STATE VARIABLE
This describes the natural state of a process. There are basically three fundamental quantities, that is, mass energy and momentum. These three fundamental are often not directly or conveniently measured. The are often characterized by temperature, pressure, composition, flow rate, etc. These variable are called state variables because they describe the natural state of a system. They usually present within the accumulation term of the principle of conservation. State equations: These equations are derived by the application of conservation principle on the fundamental quantities to relate the state variables with other variables. How can we see state variables within state equations? These can be deduced from state equations. Conservation principle, general form Rate of accumulation = rate of input rate of output + rate of generation