DESIGN OF GMC-ASE CONTROL SCHEME FOR NONLINEAR CSTR

Dipesh S. Patle
Student, M.E. Chemical Engineering Group, Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, Rajasthan333031 Phone: +91-9983524262; Email: dipesh.patle@gmail.com, dipeshp@bits-pilani.ac.in

Dr. Rakesh Angira

Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering Group, Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, Rajasthan333031 Phone: +91-9414883856; Email: angira@bits-pilani.ac.in Abstract: This paper aims at developing a nonlinear observer-based control strategy for a jacketed continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR). The nonlinear adaptive state estimator/observer (ASE/ASO) is designed based on a model structure that mainly consists of an energy balance equation. In this observation approach, reactor concentration is considered as an imprecisely known extra state (augmented state) with no dynamics. Mainly due to the design simplicity, less computational effort with fast convergence, the observer is useful for online implementation. The generic model controller (GMC) has also been synthesized for the example reactor. The nonlinear GMC scheme receives the required information about the reactor concentration from the ASE for calculating the controller responses. Simulation experiments have been carried out to investigate the performance provided by the proposed GMC-ASE control scheme which is also compared with proportional integral (PI) controller. Keywords: Adaptive State Estimator, Nonlinear Control, GMC-ASE, PI, CSTR 1. INTRODUCTION

There is an increasing demand in the area of control strategies that can give better control performance than can be obtained through the use of conventional PI or PID controllers. Accordingly, the research effort has been started from late 1980s to develop the nonlinear model-based controllers. Among those controllers, a generic model control (GMC) scheme is one, which can effectively control the industrial processes coping with both nonlinearities and interactions. In recent years, various approaches for designing the nonlinear control methodologies have been reported in the literature. Most of the nonlinear controllers, such as globally literalizing controller (GLC) (Isidori, 1989; Jana et al., 2005), generic model controller (GMC) (Lee and Sullivan, 1988; Signal and Lee, 1992), internal model controller (IMC) and many others require the feedback of state variables to implement the control laws. However, complete state feedback is impractical in most chemical engineering applications. It is observed that the performance of a nonlinear model based control system mainly depends on the convergence ability as well as robustness of the state estimator. The generic model control is a model-based control and it is closely related with the internal model control (IMC) (Lee and Sullivan, 1988). It is true that the performance of the GMC scheme is also degraded due to the inaccurate feedback of the state information to the controller. The combination of GMC law and an efficient state estimator may improve the closed-loop performance. A main characteristic of this estimator lies in the easiness of its implementation and in their calibration method. It also offers transparent tuning and exponential convergence of the estimation error towards zero. This nonlinear adaptive state estimator/observer (ASE/ASO) is extended in the present study and is employed for state estimation of a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR). An interesting part of the present study is that the designed observation scheme estimates a true state variable (reactor concentration) accurately without having the proper information on concentration dynamics. In this study, the design approach of a nonlinear adaptive control algorithm has been proposed for a CSTR by combining the GMC and an ASE. The GMC is a selected as it is an efficient control strategy and it provided promising performance in industrial based applications. The adaptive state estimator has been included in the control structure mainly to estimate the imprecisely known parameters (augmented states) along with the measured states. In

this article, the simulation results are arranged as follows. Firstly, the performance of the state estimator has been inspected through simulation experiments in the presence of disturbance, and parametric uncertainty. Subsequently, the GMCstate estimator structure has been applied for controlling the temperature in the reactor for the example continuous stirred tank reactor. In the closed-loop performance study, the GMCstate estimator structure has been compared with the PI controller. The open-loop performance of the developed observation scheme has been checked with step changes in heat of reaction and overall heat transfer coefficient, jacket temperature, uncertain activation energy is studied. Also, the hybrid GMC-ASE control scheme has been derived for the example CSTR. The comparative set point tracking and disturbance rejection performances have been studied between the proposed GMC-ASE and a traditional proportional integral (PI) controller. 2. EXAMPLE PROCESS

To study the performance of the adaptive observation scheme and the GMC as well as PI control law, a jacketed continuous stirred tank reactor (Bequette 2003) is taken as an example process. An irreversible, exothermic, firstorder chemical reaction (AB) occurs in the CSTR. The design parameters are reported in Table 1. CA 0.066 lbmol/ft3 CAf 0.132 lbmol/ft3 F/V 4 hr-1 C p 53.25 Btu/ft3 oF UoA 6600 Btu/hr oF V 85 ft3 T 560.77 oR Tf 519.67 oR Tj 541.0787 oR E 32400 Btu/lbmol (H) 39000 Btu/lbmol PO R 1.987 Btu/lbmol oF Ko 16.96*10^12 hr-1 Table 1. Steady-state design parameters of the CSTR 3. CONTROLLER SYNTHESIS

The control objective of the example reaction system is to maintain the reactor temperature (T) at its desired value by manipulating the coolant flow rate. However, for the ease of GMC controller synthesis, the coolant jacket temperature (T j ) was used as manipulated input instead of flow rate. A simple steady state correlation can easily be developed between the coolant flow rate and temperature using the energy balance equation around the jacket.

Fig. 1. Block diagram for the adaptive control algorithm. 3.1 ASE estimator

Adaptive state estimator has been designed on the model structure as Farza et al. (1999):

dT dt

F Tf V

H E K 0 exp CA CP RT

U0 A T V CP

Tf
(1)

dC A dt
T CA

0.0
2 Tf
2

The above predictor model includes the energy balance equation and the extra state equation having no dynamics.

0 0

H K 0 exp CP 0

E RT

T CA

F Tf V

T 0

U0 A T V CP

H K 0 exp cP

E RT

T T

(2) where T and C A are estimates of T and C A , respectively. In the above estimator structure, is the tuning parameter. 3.2 GMC controller

It is easy to calculate the relative order of process output with respect to input as unity. Therefore, to derive the GMC equation for the concerned CSTR, Lee and Sullivan, 1988)

f x, d

g1 u, x, d

F Tf V

H K 0 exp CP

E CA RT

U0 A T V CP

Tf
(3)

Finally GMC controller equation becomes,

Tj

V CP F Tf U0 A V

H E K 0 exp CA CP RT

K1e K 2 e dt
0

(4) where, e (= Tsp T) is the error to the controller and Tsp is the set point value of T . In the above Equation (4), K1 and K2 are the GMC tuning parameters. In the present case, the reactor temperature (true state) is assumed as measured variable, whereas the reactor concentration is considered as poorly known extra state. It is obvious in the above controller Equation (4) that the both states T and CA are required for the implementation of the GMC controller. Since C A is imprecisely known so it has to be estimated

4.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The control objective in this simulation-based work is to maintain the CSTR at the definite conversion, high temperature steady state operating point. 4.1 Open-loop performance of ASE

4.1.1 Disturbance in heat of reaction Fig. 3 compares the estimated outputs (EO) and true process outputs (PO) with step change in the heat of reaction (changed from 39000 to 41000 at time = 5 hr and then from 41000 to 39000 at time = 15 hr). Excellent agreement has been achieved between the predicted and process values. Hence the simulation experiment has shown high quality convergence ability of the proposed estimation scheme.

(a) (b) Fig. 2 (a) (b). Comparison of the estimated outputs and process outputs with step change in heat of reaction (changed from 39000 to 41000 at time = 5 hr and then from 41000 to 39000 at time = 15hr ). 4.1.2 Disturbance in overall heat transfer coefficient Fig. 3 compares the estimated outputs and true process outputs with step change in the overall heat transfer coefficient (changed from 88 to 100 at time = 5 hr and again to 88 at time = 15 hr). From which it can be observed that Process output and Estimator output are perfectly superimposed.

(a) (b) Fig. 3 (a) (b). Comparison the estimated outputs and true process outputs with step change in the overall heat transfer coefficient (changed from 88 to 100 at time = 5 hr and again to 88 at time = 15 hr) 4.1.3 Step change in activation energy Fig. 4 illustrates the tracking performance of the ASE scheme under step change in activation energy. The simulation result shows that the proposed observation approach provided promising convergence of the estimation error under the uncertainty in the activation energy (changed from 32400 to 32200 at time = 5 hr and again to 32400 at time = 15 hr).

(a) (b) Fig. 4 (a) (b). Comparison of the estimated outputs and process outputs under step change in activation energy (changed from 32400 to 32200 at time = 5 hr and again to 32400 at time = 15 hr)

4.2

Closed-loop performance of GMC-ASE and PI

4.2.1 Servo problem Fig. 5 represents the comparative set point tracking performance between the hybrid GMC-ASE and PI controllers set point for step change in reactor temperature. It is very prominent in the figure that the PI controller provides significantly large overshoot when the set point temperature is changed. On the other hand, under these large step changes, the GMC control scheme has shown better performance over PI controller.

(a)

(b)

(c) Fig. 5 (a) (b) (c). Comparison of the GMC-ASE and PI controllers for set point step change in reactor temperature (changed from 560.77 to 564.77 at time = 10 hr, 564.77 to 560.77 at time 15 hr, 560.77 to 556.77 at time 25 hr, and 556.77 to 558.2) 4.2.2 Regulatory problem The regulatory behavior of the GMC-ASE has been compared with that of the PI controller in Fig. 6 for the rejection of step disturbance in feed temperature (changed from 519.67 to 504.67 at time =10 hr and again to 519.67 at time =20hr). From the figure it can be inferred that the PI controller failed to take required actions. On the other hand, the GMC-ASE scheme has shows excellent performance compared to the traditional PI controller under the given disturbance.

(a)

(b) (c) Fig. 6 (a) (b) (c). Comparative regulatory performance of the GMC-ASE and PI controllers for step change in feed temperature (changed from 519.67 to 504.67 at time =10 hr and again to 519.67 at time =20hr) CONCLUSIONS An adaptive control strategy is proposed for maintaining the constant reactor temperature inside the reactor. The control structure comprises of a nonlinear generic model controller and a closed-loop adaptive state estimator. The simple design, easy tuning, and good performance make the adaptive controller attractive for online use. In the next part, a hybrid GMC-ASE control structure has been developed. The superior performance of the nonlinear GMCASE scheme has been observed over the conventional PI controller. The proposed scheme showed promising potential under input noise, uncertainty and disturbance. Estimator is observed to be computationally less expensive and easy to design in addition superior performance of the nonlinear GMC-ASE scheme has been observed over the conventional PI controller. . REFERENCES D. Dochain, L., (1992), Chen, Local observability and controllability of stirred tank reactors, J. Process Control, Vol.2, 139144. Farza, M., Busawon, K., Hammouri, H., 1998. Simple nonlinear observers for on-line estimation of kinetic rates in bioreactors. Automatica 34, 301318. Farza, M., Hammouri, H., Jallut, C., Lieto, J. (1999), State Observation of a Nonlinear System: Application to (Bio) chemical Processes, AICHE J., Vol. 45, 93-106. Guo, B., Jiang, A., Hua, X., Jutan, A., (2001) Nonlinear Adaptive Control for Multivariable Chemical Processes, Chem. Eng. Sci., Vol. 56, 67816791. Jana, A.K. (2007), Nonlinear State Estimation and Generic Model Control of a Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor international journal of chemical reactor engineering, Vol. 5, Article A42 Kantor, J.C., (1989), A Finite Dimensional Nonlinear Observer for an Exothermic Stirred-tank Reactor, Chem. Eng. Sci., Vol. 44, 1503-1510. Kim, K.J., Choi, K.Y., (1991), On-line Estimation and Control of a Continuous Stirred Tank Polymerization Reactor, J. Proc. Cont., Vol. 1, 96-110. Lee, P. L., & Sullivan, G. R. (1988). Generic model control. Computers and Chemical Engineering, 12(6), 573}580. M. Zeits., (1984) Observability canonical (phase-variable) form for nonlinear time-variable systems, Internat. J. Systems Sci. Vol.15, 949-958. Signal, P.D., Lee, P.L., (1992), Generic model adaptive control. Chemical Engineering Communications 115, 35 52.