Temperature control cascade loop

In heat exchanger applications, cascade loops are configured so that the master detects the process temperature and the slave detects a variable, such as steam pressure, that may upset the process temperature. The cascade loop, responds immediately and corrects for the effect of the upset before it can influence the process temperature. The cascade master adjusts the set point of the slave controller to assist in achieving this. Therefore, the slave must be much faster than the master. A rule of thumb is that the time constant of the primary controller should be ten times that of the secondary, or the period of oscillation of the primary should be three times that of the secondary. One of the quickest (and therefore best) cascade slaves is the simple and inexpensive pressure regulator. 

Feedforward control can also be applied by multiplying the liquid flow measurement—after dynamic compensation—by the output of the temperature controller, the result used to set steam flow in cascade. Feedforward is capable of a reduction in integrated error as much as a hundredfold but requires the use of a steam-flow loop and dynamic compensator to approach this. 

Fig. 5.4-23 shows a sketch drawing of a BSC (Brogli et al., 1981). The stirred-tank reactor made of glass (a metal version is also available) is surrounded by a jacket through which a heat-transfer fluid flows at a very high rate the jacket is not insulated. The temperature of the circulation loop is regulated by a cascaded controller so that the heat evolution in the reactor is equilibrated by heat transfer through the reactor wall. The temperature in the loop is adjusted by injection of thermostatted hot or cold fluid. 

A cascade control system can be designed to handle fuel gas disturbance more effectively (Fig. 10.1). In this case, a secondary loop (also called the slave loop) is used to adjust the regulating valve and thus manipulate the fuel gas flow rate. The temperature controller (the master or primary controller) sends its signal, in terms of the desired flow rate, to the secondary flow control loop—in essence, the signal is the set point of the secondary flow controller (FC). 

Figure 10.1. Cascade control of the temperature of a furnace, which is taken to be the same as that of the outlet process stream. The temperature controller does not actuate the regulating valve directly it sends its signal to a secondary flow rate control loop which in turn ensures that the desired fuel gas...

The reactor temperature controller (loop 2) is the primary controller, whereas the jacket temperature controller (loop 3) is the secondary controller. The advantage of the cascade control is that the reactor temperature control quickly reacts by the cascade system to disturbances in cooling fluid inlet conditions. The d3mamics of the transfer function G32 is faster than that of G 22-In the CSTR cascade control there are two control loops using two different measurements temperatures T and Tj, but only one manipulated variable Fj. The transfer function of the primary controller is the following ... 

Fig. 10. Block diagrams a) Single loop concentration controi and b) Cascade temperature control...

In order to achieve an accurate control of the internal reactor temperature, a cascade controller can be used. In this type of controller, temperature control is managed by two controllers arranged in cascade, that is, in two nested loops (Figure 9.14). The external loop, called the master, controls the temperature of the reaction mixture by delivering a set value to the slave, the inner loop, which controls the temperature of the heat carrier (Tc). 

Figure 8-54 shows a depropanizer controlled by reflux and boil-up ratios. The actual mechanism through which these ratios are manipulated is as D/(L + D) and B/(V + B), where L is reflux flow and V is vapor boil-up, which decouples the temperature loops from the liquid-level loops. Column pressure here is controlled by flooding both the condenser and accumulator however, there is no level controller on the accumulator, so this arrangement will not function with an overloaded condenser. Temperatures are used as indications of composition in this column because of the substantial difference in boiling points between propane and butanes. However, off-key components such as ethane do affect the accuracy of the relationship, so that an analyzer controller is used to set the top temperature controller (TC) in cascade. 

In the following, the model-based controller-observer adaptive scheme in [15] is presented. Namely, an observer is designed to estimate the effect of the heat released by the reaction on the reactor temperature dynamics then, this estimate is used by a cascade temperature control scheme, based on the closure of two temperature feedback loops, where the output of the reactor temperature controller becomes the setpoint of the cooling jacket temperature controller. Model-free variants of this control scheme are developed as well. The convergence of the overall controller-observer scheme, in terms of observer estimation errors and controller tracking errors, is proven via a Lyapunov-like argument. Noticeably, the scheme is developed for the general class of irreversible nonchain reactions presented in Sect. 2.5. 

In reactor temperature control applications, a slave controlling the jacket outlet temperature is recommended so that the dynamics of the jacket is transferred from the primary to the secondary loop. In temperature-on-temperature cascade systems, such as shown in Figure 2.45, the secondary controller should have little or no integral. 

Part (c) in Figure 2.85 illustrates a triple cascade loop, where a temperature controller is the slave of an analyzer controller while the reflux flow is cascaded to temperature. Because temperature is an indicator of composition at constant pressure, the analyzer controller serves only to correct for variations in feed composition. Cascade loops will work only if the slave is faster than the master, which adjusts its set point. Another important consideration in all cascade systems (not shown in Figure 2.85) is that an external reset is needed to prevent the integral mode in the master from saturating, when that output is blocked from reaching and modulating the set point of the slave (when the slave is switched to local set point). 

The two key temperatures of the liquefaction process (inversion and liquid product temperatures) are controlled by TC-25 and TC-26. TC-25 modulates the level set point of LC-24 of the LN2 accumulator, and TC-26 adjusts the level set point of FC-27 of the LH2 accumulator. The LH2 (or nitrogen) supplies to the evaporators are controlled by cascade loops that adjust the levels in the accumulators, which in turn vary the heat transfer area, and therefore, the rate of evaporation. 

Since high-purity products are usually produced only in situations where the separation is relatively easy, most of these columns have fairly large temperature gradients. Therefore it is possible to use tem-perature/composition cascade control systems. The secondary temperature controller serves as a fast loop to detect disturbances quickly and hold the temperature profile in the column. The primary composition... 

Cascade control is one solution to this problem (see Fig. 8-35). Here the jacket temperature is measured, and an error signal is sent from this point to the coolant control valve this reduces coolant flow, maintaining the heat transfer rate to the reactor at a constant level and rejecting the disturbance. The cascade control configuration will also adjust the setting of the coolant control valve when an error occurs in reactor temperature. The cascade control scheme shown in Fig. 8-35 contains two controllers. The primary controller is the reactor temperature coolant temperature controller. It measures the reactor temperature, compares it to the set point, and computes an output, which is the set point for the coolant flow rate controller. This secondary controller compares the set point to the coolant temperature measurement and adjusts the valve. The principal advantage of cascade control is that the secondary measurement (jacket temperature) is located closer to a potential disturbance in order to improve the closed-loop response. 

Measurement of the steam or refrigerant flow can provide a good indication of heat duty. If there are multiple users, which cause disturbances to the utility, then a temperature to flow cascade control arrangement should be considered. In such a cascade arrangement, the temperature controller output provides the setpoint for the flow controller. The flow controller minimizes the effect of utility stream disturbances and hnearizes the temperature control loop. 

Another approach for removing heat is a circulation loop through an external heat exchanger, as shown in Figure 3.24. The circulation rate is maximized for good heat transfer on the process side, while the heat transfer medium is throttled by the reactor temperature controller. If the reactor is small and well mixed, the cascade temperature control arrangement as shown may not be necessary, and the reactor temperature controller may be connected directly to the valve. 

The hot section (Fig. 5) is controlled by a cascade loop which is based on a selected pumping rate (150 gpm) and sterilization temperature set in the TIC. Changes in the feed temperature are monitored at TTl which will automatically override the steam supply to keep the temperature at set point. Steam flow rate is monitored (by FE) and flow is automatically compensated should a large drawdown of steam occur elsewhere in the plant. Temperature is recorded at the beginning and end of the hot section. The hot section should be well insulated and special care should be given to the pipe supports for expansion. (Instrumentation symbols used here and in Figs. 3, 5, 6 and 7, conform to the standard symbols of the Instrument Society of America.)... 

Table 23.4 shows the three possible loop configurations. Number 3 corresponds to cascade temperature control and, as we have seen in Section 20.1 and Example 20.1, it provides fast compensation. Thus configuration 3 is selected for the reactor. 

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