<p> The work in this thesis focuses on the temperature control of a semi-batch
polymerization reactor. The system is published by Chylla and Haase (1993) as an
Industrial Challenge and is typical of reactors at S.C. Johnson Wax. The challenge is to
find a single controller that can adequately regulate reactor temperature despite changing
process conditions. The multi-product nature of the system makes it a particularly
interesting problem. Several different controllers are implemented and evaluated in this
thesis. The controllers are in part chosen to quantify the amount process information
(large or small) required in a controller structure in order to achieve satisfactory control.
Two of the most promising controllers are a PID with feedforward compensation and a
Nonlinear Adaptive algorithm. It is found that in many cases, there may be little incentive
to go to a complex model based controller as the simpler feedback algorithm provides
adequate control. However, the nonlinear adaptive controller is more easily extended to
multi-batch or multi-product situations because of its more general nature. The PID with
feedforward compensation requires retuning for each new situation in order to maintain
satisfactory control. </p> / Thesis / Master of Engineering (MEngr)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/19519 |
| Date | 07 1900 |
| Creators | Clarke-Pringle, Tracy |
| Contributors | MacGregor, J.F., Chemical Engineering |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
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