Journal of Control System and Control Instrumentation

Volume 2 Issue 1

Design of Different Control Strategies for a Boiler Drum System

using LabVIEW

Jay Prakash, Shree Kumar Mishra, Chandra Mohan Kisku, Priya, Rakesh Kumar Mishra
Department of Applied Electronics & Instrumentation Engineering,
C.V. Raman College of Engineering, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
E-mail: rakeshbbu@gmail.com

Abstract
The boiler drum water level control is one of the most important controls used in chemical
process industries. The perfect control of the boiler drum water level is the most important
function of the boiler. If the water level remains in low level, due to overheating the boiler
may get damaged, and also, if the water level remains in high level, due to overflow of water
the function of separator will be improper. Therefore, it is required to maintain an optimum
interface level between steam and water within the boiler drum system. This paper provides
the comparative performance analysis of different control strategies such as feedback ,feed
forward, feedback-feed forward ,cascade, Internal Model Control(IMC). Using IMC control
strategy for boiler drum system we have got a good set point tracking and more disturbance
rejection when compared to normal control strategies. The designed model of boiler drum
level has been simulated in LabVIEW environment.

Keywords: Boiler drum, LabVIEW, Ziegler-Nichols, Routh Array, IMC, Disturbances

INTRODUCTION of a boiler drum are to hold the water

Boiler drum is a closed cylindrical vessel safely within a limit and the steam must be
in which steam is produced from water by delivered upon desired condition.
the high temperature of the combusting Normally, drum level is expected to be
fuel inside boiler. Boiler drum level held within 2 to 5 cm of the set-point with
control systems are frequently used in some tolerance for temporary load
process industries for primarily generating changes. The bubbles formed during steam
electric power by steam engines or steam production create misrepresentation of the
turbines [1, 2]. The principal requirements true water level in the drum. For providing

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 Journal of Control System and Control Instrumentation
Volume 2 Issue 1

tight water level control of boiler steam disturbances from the steam header and
drum, there are three types of control the feed water.
techniques are mainly used. Those three
types of control techniques include Single
Element Control, Two Element Control
and Three Element Control [3–7]
System
Classification Typical Applications

Fig. 1: Single Element Control System.

Single- Institutional and industrial heating
Element plants Steady process conditions.
Two Element Control
Two Element Drum Level Control
Industrial plants with essentially
Two- includes steam flow (secondary
continuous type processes and good
Element disturbance) as a feed forward element.
feed-water flow regulation.
Two element control system has two
variables, drum level and steam flow to
Combination of batch and continuous
manipulate the feed water control valve.
type operations such that plant steam
Three- This strategy compensates the imbalance
load characteristics varies continu-
Element among feed water mass flow and steam
ously and usually unpredictably. Most
industrial power applications fall into mass flow out into the drum. It has some
this category. shortcoming, i.e., it can be used for single
boiler with single feed water pump using a
Single Element Control constant feed water pressure.
Single Element Drum Level Control is the
simplest and least effectual technique to
regulate the water level. The process
variable coming out from the drum level
transmitter is compared with the set point
or desired point thus a deviation value is
produced. The error signal is then fed into Fig. 2: Two Element Control System.
the controller to make corrective action.
The weakness of this strategy is that the
level is subject to uncontrolled

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 Journal of Control System and Control Instrumentation
Volume 2 Issue 1

Three Element Control

Three element controls is the frequently R(s) Y(s)
used method to control the drum water GV(s) GP(s)
level. This method is ideally matched to
control a plant, which consists of multiple
boilers drums with multiple feed water Fig. 4: Generalized Block Diagram.
pumps.
By using cascade control mechanism, level Y(s)/R(s)=GV(s)GP(s)KP/(1+GV(s)GP(s))
element acts as primary loop, flow element (3)
acts as the secondary loop and steam flow From above equation
acts as the feed forward controller. This The characteristic equation is:
system attempts to compensate the =2s2+s (0.15s+1) +0.25(-s+1)KP
changes or disturbances in steam flow and =0.3s3+2s2+0.15s2+s-0.25skP+0.25KP
feed water flow. =0.3s3+2.15s2+sKP(1/ KP-0.25) +0.25 KP
Appling Routh Array method to find
critical gain (KP) and critical time constant
(τ):
S3 0.3 sKP(1/ KP-0.25)
S2 2.15 0.25 KP
S1 [2.15 KP(1/ KP-0.25)-0.75 KP]/2.15
Fig. 3: Three Element Control System.
For stability of the system:

MATHEMATICAL DERIVATION 2.15 KP (1/ KP-0.25)-0.75 KP > 0

FOR Kp AND KC i.e., KP< 3.5102 (4)

The relationship between the feed-water

flow rate and drum level are expressed Hence the critical time constant (τ) is:

below: By taking the auxiliary equation:

 Boiler Drum Transfer Function [3] 2.15s+0.25KP=0 (5)

GP(s)= [ 0.25(-s+1)]/[s (2s+1)] (1) => ω=0.638

We know that,
 Valve Transfer function
τ=2п/ω i.e., τ=9.848 (6)
GV(s) =1/[0.15s+1] (2)

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 Journal of Control System and Control Instrumentation
Volume 2 Issue 1

CONTROL STRATEGIES AND

SIMULATIONS
Feedback Control Strategy
The level measurement device senses the
level and sends an indication to the
controller. The controller compares the
water level height with the desired set
point and send a controller output signal to
the valve, which changes the valve Fig. 6: Feedback Control Response
position and therefore, the volumetric flow Graph.
rate. Here, we have taken PID controller Feed-Forward Control Strategy
and we used the Ziegler-Nichols method In Feed-Forward Control Strategy the
for tuning proposes [1, 8]. sensor measures the disturbance and
adjusts the manipulated input before the
Table 1: Ziegler Nichol Tuning. process output changes. Feed-forward
Ziegler KP KI Kd control is always used along with feedback
Nichol control system because a feedback control
Control Type
system is required to follow set point
P 1.755 - -
changes and to suppress unmeasured
PI 1.579 0.192 -
disturbances. The primary disturbance is
PID 2.106 0.428 2.590
steam flow rate from boiler drum and the
secondary disturbance is feed water flow
rate [2, 9, 13].

The disturbance transfer function is given

by [3]:
Gd(s)=[-0.25(-s+1)]/[s(s+1)(2s+1)] (7)

The gain of the feed forward controller is

Fig. 5: Feedback Control.
[1]
Gff(s)=Gd(s)/GV(s)GP(s)=-0.15s-1/s+1 (8)

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 Journal of Control System and Control Instrumentation
Fig. 7: Feed Forward Control.
Fig. 8: Feed-Forward Control Response
Graph.
Cascade Control Strategy
Cascade control involves the use of
multiple measurements and a single
manipulated input. In this strategy, the
level controller is known as the primary,
master, or outer-loop controller, while the
flow controller is the secondary, slave or
inner-loop controller as we have discussed
earlier in the three element control. The
primary disturbance (process inlet flow)
directly affects the primary output. The
secondary disturbance (steam header
pressure) directly affects the secondary
output. Generally, a proportional controller
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Volume 2 Issue 1
is used for the secondary loop with high
gain [5].
Fig. 9: Cascade Control.
Fig. 10: Cascade Control Response Graph.
:
Internal Model Control (IMC)
The major benefit to use Internal Model
Control (IMC) is that it provides a
transparent framework for control system
design and tuning. The Internal Model
Control theory relies on the Internal Model
Principle which states that the control can
be achieved only if the control system
encapsulates, either implicitly or
explicitly, some representation of the
process to be controlled. The block
diagram of internal model control is given
below [4].
 Journal of Control System and Control Instrumentation
Volume 2 Issue 1

higher than numerator, the controller is

proper.

y (t)
q (𝑠) = 𝑞 ~ (𝑠) 𝑓(𝑠)
Where, 𝑓 (s ) =1/ (1+𝜆𝑠 )𝑛
′𝜆′ is the tuning parameter of Internal
Fig. 11: Standard IMC Controller Block
Diagram. Model Control. For making the controller
proper or semi proper, change the values
Where q(s) is the primary controller (IMC)
of n (1 2 3 …).
transfer
Step 4:
function, gp(s) is the process transfer
Adjust the filter tuning parameter ′𝜆′to to
function, gp~(s) is the process model
achieve good disturbance rejection.
transfer function, r(s) is set point, r ~(s) is
Hence by following these above methods
error, u(s) is manipulated variable, d(s) is
we get IMC Controller as:
disturbance, y~(s) is model output and y(s)
q(s)=(0.3s3+2.15s2+s)/(0.5625s3+1.3125s2
is controlled variable (process output).
+s+0.25 ) (9)

The controller design procedure has been

generalized to the following step [4]:

Step 1: First we have identified the

process model into good stuff and bad
stuff by using all pass formulation or using
simple factorization. Fig. 12: Internal Model Control.

Step 2: Invert the (good stuff) invertible

portion of the process model and to make
proper add the filter.
𝑞 (𝑠) =1/𝑔p ⁻ (𝑠)
Step 3:
Add a filter f(s) to make the controller
proper. If the order of the numerator and
denominator is same, the controller is semi Fig. 13: Internal Model Control Response.
proper. If the order of denominator is Graph.

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 Journal of Control System and Control Instrumentation
Volume 2 Issue 1

OVERALL RESULTS
Control Settling Peak Rise Over- Inversion REFERENCES
Strategy Time Time Time Shoot
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IMC 10 10 10 0 0.03 3. K. G. Begum, D. Mercy, H. K. Vedi et
al. An intelligent model based level

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performances of the different control 4. Rakesh Kumar Mishra, Tarun Kumar

strategies (Such as Feedback, Dan. Design of an internal model

Feedforward, Cascade and IMC) of a control for SISO binary distillation

boiler drum level control system using column. IEEE, ICE-CCN. 2013; 666 –

LabVIEW software. For PID controller we 669p.

used Ziegler Nichols method for tuning the 5. Rohit Khalkho. Comparative

parameters. Apart from PID tuning performance analysis of different

methods, we have also implemented IMC control structure of process. E-thesis,

controller for the drum level control. The National Institute of Technology,

simulation shows that the IMC controller India; 2013.

gives even better and smoother results than 6. National Instruments. LabVIEW

other control strategies. LabVIEW Control Design Toolkit User Manual.

presents a very easy environment to 7. Roopal Agrawal, Umesh C. Pati.

simulate and compare the different Design and data logging of three

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LabVIEW. National Conference on
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Comparative analysis of boiler drum

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 Journal of Control System and Control Instrumentation
Volume 2 Issue 1

level control using advanced classical AUTHORS

approaches. Department of Polymers Jay Prakash is from
& Process Engineering, Indian Institute Jamshedpur, Jharkhand.
of Technology, Roorkee, India. He is pursuing his
9. K.J. Astrom, R. D. Bell. Drum-boiler B. Tech from C.V.
dynamics. Automatical, 36, Elsevier. Raman College of
2000; 4: 363–378p. Engineering, Bhubaneswar in the
10. B. Hemalatha, A. Vimala, J. N. Department of Applied Electronics &
Natarajan. Boiler level control using Instrumentation Engineering. His research
Labview. IJCA (0975-8887). 2010; interest includes Industrial Automation
1(17). and Control, Instrumentation System and
11. Subhransu Padhee, Yaduvir Singh. Devices and Control System.
Data logging and supervisory control E-mail: jayprakash317@gmail.com
of process using LabVIEW. Proc. of Shree Kumar Mishra is
the IEEE Students Tech. Symp. 2011; from Dhenkanal,
329–334p. Odisha. He is pursuing
12. Mihai Iacob, Gheorghe-Daniel his B. Tech from C.V.
Andreescu, Nicolae Muntean. Boiler- Raman College of
turbine simulator with real-time Engineering, Bhubaneswar in the
capability for dispatcher training using Department of Applied Electronics &
LabVIEW. 12th International Instrumentation Engineering. His research
Conference on Optimization of interest includes Industrial
Electrical and Electronic Equipment, Instrumentation, Process Control
OPTIM. 2010; 864–868p. Instrumentation and Qualitative Research
13. Antonio Visioli. Fuzzy logic based set- Methods.
point weight tuning of PID controllers. E-mail: shreekumarpro@gmail.com
IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man Chandra Mohan Kisku is from Nalco
and Cybernetics-Part A: Systems and Nagar, Odisha. He is
Humans. 1999; 587 –592p. pursuing his B.Tech
from C.V. Raman
College of Engineering,
Bhubaneswar in the
Department of Applied Electronics &

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 Journal of Control System and Control Instrumentation
Volume 2 Issue 1

Instrumentation Engineering. Her research Journals & IEEE conferences. He is life

interest includes industrial instrumentation time Member of International Society for
and process control instrumentation, Research and Development (ISRD)
Instrumentation Devices and Systems. London, Member of IEEE and Editor of
E-mail: chandramohankisku7@gmail.com MAT Journal India.
Priya is from Bokaro E-mail: rakeshbbu@gmail.com
Steel City, Jharkhand. She
is pursuing her B. Tech
from C.V. Raman College
of Engineering,
Bhubaneswar in the Department of
Applied Electronics and Instrumentation
Engineering. Her research interest includes
industrial instrumentation and process
control instrumentation, Instrumentation
Devices and Systems.
E-mail: priyame9394@gmail.com
Rakesh Kumar Mishra
is from Varanasi U.P.
He pursued his M.Tech
degree from National
Institute of Technology,
Rourkela in 2013. Currently working as an
Assistant Professor in the Department of
Applied Electronics & Instrumentation
Engineering, C. V. Raman College of
Engineering, Bhubaneswar. His research
interest includes Control Systems,
Industrial Instrumentation, PLC, SCADA,
DCS, PC Based Instrumentation,
Measurement & Instrumentation and
Process Control Instrumentation. He has
published 10 research papers in different

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