B.

Process Control
1. Characteristics of Process Control Systems The primary function of process control systems is to maintain the process output or controlled variable, (C), at the desired value, which is defined by the system required input, (R), or "set-point". The set-point is normally changed infrequently and the principal design problem is to select an appropriate control strategy to reject noise signals or disturbances, (D). A large number of processes possess an inherent "transportation delay" (= e-sT) and the process input magnitude is often limited by a saturation nonlinearity. 1.1 Processes with Transportation Delays A simple closed-loop process control system, which includes a transportation delay, is shown below: R Controller + K Process exp(-sT) s C

The CLTF is: C( s ) Ke sT = R ( s ) Ke sT + s This equation is non-analytic because of the exponential term in the denominator. Several methods are available for dealing with the exponential, including the Pad approximant, which provides a polynomial approximation; and the Smith Predictor, which removes the exponential from the denominator. 1.2 Pad Approximant Recall the series expansions of e-x and ex: x2 x3 + ..... 2 3! x2 x3 ex = 1 + x + + + ..... 2 3! ex = 1 x + If we write:

e sT =

e e sT / 2

sT / 2

1 sT 2 + ( sT ) 8 ..... = 2 1 + sT 2 + ( sT ) 8 + .....

and truncate the series at, say, the 1st order terms, then: 1 sT 2 2

sT

1 + sT

(a (1,1) Pad approximant)

the CLTF then becomes: K( 2 T s ) C( s ) R ( s ) s 2 + s( 2 K ) + 2 K T T Inspection of the denominator indicates that the system is: stable if critically stable if unstable if K < 2/T K = 2/T K > 2/T

The advantage of the approximate CLTF is that it can be used more easily in controller design procedures. Exercise Sketch the open-loop Bode Plot and show that the exact stability criteria are: stable if: critically stable if: unstable if K < /2T K = /2T K > /2T

2. Controller Configurations 2.1 PID Control If neither the process nor the controller contains an integrator, disturbances will cause steady-state errors in the process output. By way of illustration, consider the structure shown below.

D(s) R Controller + Gc(s) +

Process Gp(s) C

Let Gp(s) = 5/(s+0.1). If the controller is a pure gain, Gc ( s ) = K c , then the CLTF relating the disturbance and the process output is: C( s ) 5 = D( s ) s + ( 0 .1 + 5 K c ) and the steady state gain is: C( s ) D( s )

=
s=0

5 0 .1 + 5 K c

If, however, the controller contains an integrator: G p ( s ) = Kc ( 1 + K ( 1 + i s ) 1 )= c i s i s

the CLTF becomes: C( s ) = D( s ) 5s s 2 + ( 0 .1 + 5 K c ) s + 5 Kc i

which has a steady-state gain of zero. Therefore a constant disturbance will be completely rejected after an initial transient, which may be oscillatory. To remove any tendency towards instability, caused by introducing the integral term, a derivative term is often added to the controller:
2 1 + s) = K 1 + i s + i d s Gc ( s) = Kc (1 + s d c i i s

Several procedures are available for obtaining suitable parameter settings (referred to as "controller tuning"), in general, these tend to make the numerator of Gc(s) a perfect

square and places one of the zeroes of Gc(s) close to slowest process root, with the objective of speeding-up rejection of the disturbance. Exercise Assess the disturbance rejection characteristics of PID control applied to a process with TF: G p ( s ) = 1 ( s + 0 .1 )( s + 0 .05 ) (i.e. design a controller using the broad guidelines discussed above and investigate the effects of various parameter values) 2.2 Feed-forward Control If the disturbance can be measured (sometimes difficult, if not impossible!) then FF control can be implemented: D(s) G (s) f R + + G(s) + Gp(s) C

1 G( s ) which may be difficult to implement, since G(s) will normally possess low-pass characteristics and, consequently, the inverse will need to exhibit high-pass characteristics. The factor which normally legislates against the adoption of this method, however, is the nature of the disturbance signal(s), which may affect elements of the process that are inaccessible to instrumentation. For complete disturbance rejection, the FF controller TF should be: G f ( s ) = 2.3 The Smith Predictor Controller (SPC) As discussed earlier, a transportation delay causes the CLTF to become non-analytic. OJ Smith developed a control structure which, essentially, removes the delay from the denominator of the CLTF and, thereby, allows conventional design procedures to be used. The method relies on the existence of a reasonably accurate TF model of the process TF and delay. Such a model may be derived "on-line", if the process is likely to

possess time-variant parameters; methods such as least squares estimation, described above, can be employed. In general, we would like to design a controller, Gc(s), for the process, e-sTGp(s), using the overall system structure indicated below: R Controller + G (s) c Process e -sT G p (s) C

The Smith Predictor Controller is configured as below: Process e -sT G p (s) C

+ -

Controller + G (s) c

Gp(s){1-e-sT} Model of process dynamics The CLTF is: Gc ( s )G p ( s ) sT C( s ) = e R ( s ) 1 + G c ( s )G p ( s ) It can be seen that the delay does not appear in the loop equation, it has been moved outside the control loop, as shown in the "equivalent" block diagram below:

Controller + G (s) c

Process G (s) p C' e -sT C