THE COPPERBELT UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF MINES AND MINERAL SCIENCES

CHEMICAL ENGINERING DEPARTMENT

CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT

Assignment 1

CE 560/ MT 580: Process control

Controller tuning for mixing process

Due date: 24th June 2024 before 17:00 hrs

1.0 Problem description
The proportional plus integral controlled mixing process, is shown in the Fig. 1.0. The process is initially
operating at steady state with the operating conditions as shown in Table 1.

Figure 1 Integral-controlled mixing process

Table 1 Steady state operating conditions and process parameters for the mixing process

Operating conditions

Stream 1 composition 0.3 kg A/kg mix.

Stream 2 composition 1.0 kg A/kg (Pure A)

Stream 1 flow rate 15 kg min-1

Stream 2 flow rate 5 kg min-1

Process parameters

Volume of liquid in tank 4 m3

Density of liquid in the tank 900 kg m-3

During operation, some of the process variables (disturbances) can change and affect the operation
of the mixing process. Two of such variables are the composition and flow rate of stream 1. In the
presence of these disturbances, the operational objective, i.e., maintaining the concetration of
component A in the exit is, must be attained. The composition of the exit stream may represent the
quality of the product from the blending process and as such it then becomes important to regulate it
within the requred range. For this to be achieved, the exit composition is monitored and the
measurment is sent to an installed PI controller.

1
For a particular case where a step increase in concentration of A in stream 1 occurs from 0.3 to 0.6
while the flow rate of the same stream decreases suddenly from 15 to 10 kg min-1, it is desired to
control the mixing process exit composition. For this to be achieved, you are rquired to do the following:

a) Investigate the behaviour of the exit concentration with and without PI controller (use ODE
solver).

b) Compare ODE solver and Simulink results.

c) Investigate the effect of integral time on exit concentration using Simulink.

d) Investigate the effect of controller gain on the response, also using Simulink.

*For (c) and (d), keep the derivative time constant or zero.

2.0 Models for the mixing process

Approximate model for the mixing process operated with constant volume 𝑽 is

𝑑𝑥 ′
𝜌𝑉 = −𝑤 ̅1 𝑥1′ + (𝑥̅1 − 𝑥̅ )𝑤1′ + (1 − 𝑥̅ )𝑤2′
̅𝑥 ′ + 𝑤
𝑑𝑡

Where 𝑥 ′ = 𝑥 − 𝑥̅ , 𝑥1′ = 𝑥1 − 𝑥̅1 , 𝑤1′ = 𝑤1 − 𝑤 ̅1 and 𝑤2′ = 𝑤2 − 𝑤

̅ 2 , and the steady state
values of 𝑥, 𝑥1 , 𝑤1 and 𝑤2 in this case are 𝑥̅ , 𝑥̅1 , 𝑤
̅1 and 𝑤
̅2.

The steady state exit composition can be obtained from the steady state mass balance i.e.

𝑥̅1 𝑤
̅1 − 𝑤
̅2
𝑥̅ =
𝑤
̅

Where 𝑤
̅ =𝑤 ̅ 2 and 𝜏𝑃 = 𝜌𝑉 ⁄ 𝑤
̅1 + 𝑤 ̅.

The proportional plus integral control law for this process can be expressed as
𝑡
𝐾𝐶
𝑤2 (𝑡) = 𝑤
̅ 2 + 𝐾𝐶 (𝑥̅ − 𝑥) + ∫(𝑥̅ − 𝑥)𝑑𝑡
𝜏𝑃
0

3.0 Assignment report guidelines

Report should be typed and about 5-10 pages.

The format should follow that of a technical report (Introduction, problem statement, objectives,
methodology, results & discussion, conclusion and references).