Chapter 7 Cascade Control

(Chap 9 in book and 10 in edition 2)

Consider the chemical reactor below. The reactants are preheated in a furnace. Inputs to the furnace: Fuel and Air, Process streams (reactants). Purpose: It is desired to control the reactor temperature TR by acting on the amount of fuel to the furnace. The Figure below represents a FB control of the temperature TR.

Disturbances include air flowrate and fuel flowrate, also the inlet process conditions of the reactants (temperature, flow, concentrations). Other disturbances: outside temperature affects both the furnace and the reactor, impurities in the air stream. The FB block diagram is given below:

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The characteristic equation of the FB loop is:

1 Gc1GvG heaterG reactorH1 (s) 0 which gives:

1 Gc1

3 1 0.8 0.5 (0.2s 1) (3s 1)(s 1) (4s 1)(s 1)

which is simplified to:

1.2Gc1 (0.2s 1)(3s 1)(s 1) 2 (4s 1)

Now we apply the substitution method to determine the limits of the gain Kc for the FB controller: It gives:

Kcu 4.33 %CO / %TO u 0.507 rd / min

Design of the simple FB controller: With these values of the ultimate parameters, you can design a P, PI or PID controller for the primary loop i.e. the reactor temperature controller. Problem: This FB controller will not give satisfactory results as it cannot cope efficiently with fluctuations of TH (between pre-heater and reactor). See Figure 10.1.3 below. Possible solution: 1. Limit the FB loop to the reactor only and add an FFC to suppress fluctuations in TH. 2. Cascade Control: two embedded FB loops

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Why cascade control?

The effect of an upset in the furnace affects primarily the reactants exit temperature TH and then affects the reactor temperature TR. Problem: once the FB controller of the reactor temperature TR senses a deviation from the set-point (i.e. an error), it will take a long time to bring the reactor temperature TR back to its setpoint Hence the simple FB is unlikely to give good control of TR. Solution: add another FB to control the reactants exit temperature TH. This new FB loop will act within the main FB loop: Cascade Control consists of two loops: a primary FB loop and a secondary (slave) FB loop.

Cascade control loop:

Now we add the secondary controller to monitor the reactants temperature. So a TT102 transmitter is put in place. The transmitter signal is sent to the secondary (slave) controller TC102 which setpoint is the output of the primary controller TC101.

The bloc diagram of the cascade control of the preheater/reactor system is given next:

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Important: 1. Note an inner loop has been added to the previous primary loop. 2. The inner loop does not envelop the reactor dynamics. 3. The controller Gc2 in the inner loop is not known and must be designed. 4. The controller Gc1 in the outer (primary) loop must designed again, since the overall dynamics of the FB loop has changed.

A. Design the secondary FB controller TC102:

Hence the characteristic equation of the inner closed loop control is:
1 Gc 2 GvG heaterH 2 (s) 0

1 Gc 2
Or

3 1 0.5 0 (0.2s 1) (3s 1)(s 1) 1.5 (0.2s 1)(3s 1)(s 1) 0

1 Gc 2

The substitution method is used to determine the ultimate values of Kc2.

Kcu 17.06 %CO / %TO

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A simple proportional controller for the slave controller is:

Kc Kcu / 2 17.06 / 2 8.53 %CO / %TO See Table 7.1.1

If it does not work well, we can try a PI.

B. Design the primary FB controller TC101:

1 Gc1 TF of the Inner Closed Loop G reactor H1 (s) 0

3 1 0.8 (0.2s 1) (3s 1)(s 1) 1 Gc1 0.5 3 1 (4s 1)(s 1) 1 Gc 2 0.5 (0.2s 1) (3s 1)(s 1) Gc 2

1 Gc1

1.2Gc 2 1 (0.2s 1)(3s 1)(s 1) 1.5Gc 2 (4s 1)(s 1)

Since we know Gc2 i.e. Kc2, the controller Gc1 is the only unknown. Substitution method gives ultimate values below: Kcu1 7.2 %CO / %TO u1 1.54 rd / min Plots in the Figure below compares the regulation (control) of the reactor temperature with a simple FB controller and a cascade controller. It looks that the cascade control outperforms a one-loop FB controller.

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Important note: This is a two-level cascade Control. The Ziegler-Nichols method (ultimate method) is straightforward. It allows the engineer (yourself) to design a good controller based on the Q-decay. If for some reason the Qdecay cannot be used, then the engineer can try another approach: Minimum Integral Approach (ISE, IAE) or a model based scheme (Dahlins). Another approach is discussed in the text book page 316-317.

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