Regulation of Nonlinear Chemical Processes with Variable Dead Time: a Generalized Proportional Integral Controller Proposal

Abstract

This work shows the development and application of a Generalized Proportional Integral (GPI) Controller based on a FirstOrder Plus Dead Time (FOPDT) approximation for an industrial chemical process. GPI control is a relatively recent advancement in automatic control. Nowadays, several enhancements with the GPI technique come from integral reconstructions of the system states. Chemical engineering processes present numerous challenging control problems, including nonlinear dynamic behavior. GPI can become a new option to consider in industrial applications since, along with the arrival of Industry 4.0, there are many improvements in computers and automation architecture to implement controller algorithms. The new controller's functionality shows significant accessibility of mathematical and logical potential. A comparison between the GPI and a PID controller is made under the same conditions to evaluate their performance. After carrying out some tests, the GPI shows better performance and a smoother controller action when applied to the mixing tank with a variable delay than the PID. Performance indexes as Integral Square Error (ISE) for evaluating the Output Variable and Control Effort Total Variation (TVu) for evaluating the control action are used to measure performance. Finally, designing an appropriate controller like the GPI that recognizes and incorporates nonlinearities is required for chemical processes. Simulations were developed using Simulink-MATLAB.