AShortIntroductiontoProcessDynamicsandControl

ProcessControl
Process control is the study and application of automatic control in the field of chemical engineering. The primary objective of process control is to maintain a process at the desired operating conditions, safely and efficiently, while satisfying environmental and product quality requirements. Proper application of process control can actually improve the safety and profitability of a process. Even though rapidly decreasing costs of digital devices and increasing computer speed have enabled high performance measurement and control systems, it is not an easy task to achieve this because modern plantstendtobedifficulttooperateduetohighcomplexityandhighlyintegratedprocessunits. Thepossibilityofimprovingtheperformanceandtheprofitabilityisillustratedbythefiguresbelow.

Impurity

Impurity

Limit

Limit

Impurity

Limit

Time

Time

Time

In this example, acceptable product quality requires that the impurity of the product is below the limit indicatedinthefigures.However,wedonotwanttomaketheproductpurerthannecessary,becauseit would increase the production costs. The figure to the left illustrates a situation where the impurity fluctuates a lot, but the quality requirements are fulfilled. The figure in the center illustrates that the fluctuationscanbereducedbybettercontrol.Thenitispossibletoincreasetheaverageimpurityinthe product, as illustrated by the figure to the right, without violation of the quality requirements. Obviously,thisalsoreducestheproductioncosts. As a consequence of global competition, rapidly changing economic conditions, and stringent environ mental and safety regulations, process control has become increasingly important in the process industries. It is also clear that the scope and importance of process control technology will continue to expand. Consequently, chemical engineers need to master this subject in order to be able to design and operatemodernplants.

ProcessDynamics
A process is a dynamical system, whose behavior changes over time. Control systems are needed to handle such changes in the process. Thus, it is important to understand the process dynamics when a control system is designed. Mathematically, the process dynamics can be described by differential equations. Unsteadystate (or transient) process behavior then corresponds to a situation, where (at leastsome)timederivativesofthedifferentialequationsarenonzero. Transient operation occurs during important situations such as startups and shutdowns, unusual process disturbances, and planned transitions from one product grade to another. Even at normal operation, a process does not operate at a steady state (with all time derivatives of the differential equations exactly zero) because there are always variations in external variables, such as feed composition or cooling medium temperature. Thus, knowledge of steadystate (or static) process properties,taughtinmanyengineeringcourses,isnotsufficientforcontroldesign.

A dynamical system can be defined as a combination of components that act together to perform a certain objective. Conceptually, it is some isolated part of the universe that is of interesttous.Foranalysisanddesignpurposesthefullsystem of interest is usually decomposed into a number of subsystems that interact with each other. Such a subsystem(oreventhefullsystem)canbeillustratedgraphicallybyablockasshowninthefigure. Every (sub)system interacts with its environment through two groups of variables: input variables u (t ) which affect the system behavior in some way (e.g. a change in the feed composition), and output variables y (t ) whichgiveinformationaboutthesystembehavior(e.g.achangeinproductquality).The argument t indicatesthatthevaluesofthevariableschangeovertime.

FeedbackControl
The study of process control introduces a major new concept: feedback control. This concept is central to most automation systems that monitor a process and adjusts some variables to maintain the system at (or near) desired conditions. Feedback is a topic studied in many engineering disciplines for example,chemical,electrical,andmechanicalengineeringanditisappliedtoawiderangeofphysical systems from electrical circuits to guided missiles and robots. Chemical engineers apply these principles toheatexchangers,masstransferequipment,chemicalreactors,andsoforth. Feedback occurs when two (or more) dynamical systems are connected together such that each system influences the other, as illustrated by the figure. Here, System 1 could be a controller and System 2 the process being controlled. Simple causal reasoning about a feedback system is difficult because the first system influences the second and the second system influences the first, leading to a circular argument. This makes reasoning based on cause and effect tricky, and it is necessary to analyze the system as a whole. A consequence of this is that the behavior of feedback systems is often counterintuitive, and it is therefore necessary to use formal mathematical methods to understandthem. Feedbackhasmanyinterestingandusefulproperties.Itmakesitpossibletodesignsystemsthatworkin a desired way even though the subsystems are not exactly known. An unstable system can be stabilized using feedback, and the effects of external disturbances can be reduced. Feedback also offers process designersnewdegreesoffreedombecauseitincreasesflexibility.

Applications
Inthiscoursewearemainlyinterestedincontrolapplicationsrelatedtochemicalengineering.Thus,we wanttocontrol actuatorssuchasvalvesandmotorsforcontrollinge.g.flowratesandpumps

variousprocessunitssuchas continuouslyoperatedprocesses

batchandsemibatchprocesses

completeplantssuchas nuclearandchemicalplants

paper machines

Theprinciplesoffeedbackcontrol,taughtinthiscourse,areuniversalandapplicabletoallkindsofengi neeringandothercontrolapplications.Thefiguresbelowillustratesomeimportantapplicationfields.

References
Seborgetal.(2004),ProcessDynamicsandControl,Wiley. Marlin(1995),ProcessControl,McGrawHill. strmandMurray(2008),FeedbackSystems,PrincetonUP. Wittenmark,ControlAlphabet,http://www.control.lth.se/~bjorn/controlalpha/calpha.html. 4