Title: Enthalpy predictive functional control of a pasteurisation plant based on a plate heat exchanger

Authors: Mohamed Tarek Khadir

Addresses: Department of Computer Science, Laboratoire de Gestion Electronique de Documents (LabGED), University of Badji Mokhtar, BP 12, 23000, Annaba, Algeria

Abstract: Model predictive control (MPC) has been proven its efficiency in several industrial applications for over three decades. In this paper, predictive functional control (PFC) in its first order as well as its higher order forms is applied to control the pasteurisation temperature in a plate heat exchanger. The originality of the paper lies in the investigation of four control approaches using a combination of manipulated variables (medium temperature and product flow) tested in the presence of input disturbances and setpoint changes, leading to the so called |enthalpy gearbox|. The paper describes the broad lines of first principles modelling of the studied pasteurisation plant sections, as well as giving an idea of the model accuracy when compared to real plant behaviour. A reminder of the first order PFC formulation as well as the full derivation of the analytical higher PFC control laws and the adequacy of a given control law over another are given. The PFC enthalpy approach (enthalpy gearbox) is finally compared in terms of performances to the simple PFC control scheme as well as the revisited performances given by classical control (PID) in terms of mean absolute error (MAE), overshooting and constraints violation.

Keywords: predictive functional control; PFC; plate heat exchangers; flow control; temperature control; enthalpy control; milk pasteurisation; model predictive control; enthalpy gearbox; PID control; mean absolute error; overshooting; constraints violation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIC.2011.040492

International Journal of Modelling, Identification and Control, 2011 Vol.13 No.1/2, pp.78 - 87

Published online: 21 Mar 2015 *

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