Process Control of Polymer Extrusion.

Part I: Feedback Control

BING YANG and L. J AMES LEE*
Department of Chemical Engineering
The Ohio St at e Uniuersity
Columbus, Ohio
On-line computer control of extrudate thickness was
carried out using a 2-92 inch single screw plasticating
extruder. Predried poly(methy1 methacrylate) (PMMA) was
extruded through a slit die. Two feedback control methods,
a conventional PI controller and a Smith predictor dead
time compensation, were tried for both set point changes
(i.e., extrudate thickness changes) and load changes (i.e.,
screw speed changes]. Results showed that both the PI
feedback control and the Smith predictor were satisfactory
for long term set point changes but not for load changes.
Since the Smith predictor may compensate the process
dead time, it would be useful for regulating short term set
point changes such as barrel temperature settings.
INTRODUCTION
olymer extrusion is a complicated process.
P A typical extrusion line generally includes
an extruder, a die, a cooling line, and a take-up
device. The feedstock enters the extruder in the
solid form. The extruder continuously conveys,
melts, and pumps the polymer to the die. The
success of polymer extrusion relies upon the
production of a high quality product at a high
output rate, Recently the increasing cost of raw
materials, which are based upon crude oil and
natural gas, provides another stimulus for de-
veloping better technology in the extrusion
process. In addition to modifying the equip-
ment, applying modern control methods to the
extrusion line is a useful way of improving the
production. This approach is becoming more
attractive in recent years because the rapid
growth of digital computers, especially the
stand-alone type of mini- or micro-computers,
has enabled industry to apply more sophisti-
cated control methods to extrusion lines with a
reasonable cost.
The primary goal of extrusion control is to
maintain a quality production at a high output
rate. The term quality is determined by several
measurable quantities which are required to
match the specifications of the product. These
measurable quantities generally fall into three
categories. One of these, which is aesthetic in
nature, is the visual appearance such as rough-
ness, gloss, haze, waviness, and streaking of
To whom this correspondence should beaddressed.
the product. The second one is functional in
that the products must meet certain physical,
chemical, or performance specifications. The
third one, which is the goal of control in this
work, can be classified as dimension accuracy,
referring to a close dimensional tolerance.
In addition to an inappropriate die design, the
main cause of poor dimension accuracy of the
extruded product is fluctuations in the extru-
sion line, which may be the start-up transient
disturbance or steady state disturbances. For
many extrusion applications, start-up is not a
major problem since the extrusion line is mostly
under the steady state operation. However, for
some processes such as wire coating, rubber
extrusion, and tube extrusion, they are subject
to frequent start-ups and shut-downs. The tran-
sient disturbances occurred in these periods
may produce a substantial amount of out-of-
spec products.
Even under steady state operations there are
still disturbances in the extrusion line. Accord-
ing to Tadmor and Klein (1). disturbances at
steady state operation can be divided into four
categories: i.e., disturbances at the same fre-
quency as that of screw rotation; disturbances
at intermediate frequencies (0.5 to 10 cycles/
min) caused by periodic breaking up of the solid
bed in the melting region or occasional starve
feeding in the solid conveying region; disturb-
ances at low frequencies caused by conditions
external to the extruder such as cycling in the
heater power controllers or variations in feed
polymer quality; and random disturbances.
There are a few studies on extrusion control.
POLYMER ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE, MID-FEBRUARY, 1986, VOI. 26, NO. 3
197
B. Yang and L. James Lee
Most of them are designated to regulate rela-
tively long-term drifts using PID type of feed-
back control. Wright (2) used a microprocessor
interfaced with an extruder to regulate the
screw speed and the barrel temperature pro-
files.
Dormeier ( 3) used a digital PID controller to
regulate the barrel temperature for a three heat-
ing zone extruder. The controller was tuned off-
line. The result was claimed better than the
conventional analog controller. However, it
could not handle the temperature variations
caused by the surging problem.
Frigerle (4) regulated the back pressure in the
extruder to control the melt temperature. A var-
iation on Dahlins dead-time compensation al-
gorithm was used. The system was able to pro-
vide a reasonable melt temperature control for
both set point changes and a disturbance con-
sisting of a change in the barrel temperature.
Rastogi (5) and Frederickson (6) described a
general industrial system used to control the
extrudate thickness and the throughput for ex-
truders with flat dies. The control program writ-
ten in a microcomputer could control and retune
control parameters based on a process model
and the operating level. The control algorithm
Rastogi used was the Dahlins algorithm. Ras-
togi also presented experimental data which
showed a 60 to 70 percent reduction in the
thickness variation under a closed-loop control.
Rudd (7) presented another industrial control
system on sheet extrusion. The method he pro-
posed was called automatic profile control (APC)
which used a thermally controlled die bolt to
adjust the flexible die lip. The start-up transi-
tion was significantly reduced by using this
controller; however, details of the control sys-
tem were not shown in the article.
Lee, et al. (8), developed a two-dimensional
control method of producing a profile extrudate
having controlled shape and size. On-line ad-
justments were made to size and shape devia-
tions by varying the line speed of extrusion and
the temperature conditions in the extruder. The
control algorithm used in this method was a
proportional type feedback controller with mul-
tiple gains, which was sufficient for regulating
long-term dimension drifts but was not able to
control any high frequency disturbances.
Costin, et al. (9), carried out a control study
on a 38 mm extruder. They tried a PI controller
and a PI controller with an on-line filter. A self-
tuning on line controller with a time series
model was also used. The performance of the
self-tuning regulator was found not satisfac-
tory.
Most of these studies are aimed at regulating
relatively long-term drifts in the extrusion line,
while the control of high-frequency disturb-
ances is much underdeveloped. Furthermore,
among the control studies, one can seldom find
a detailed explanation of the control algorithm
and the experimental design usually varies
from one work to another work, which often
leads to a confusing conclusion when compar-
ing different studies. This work is (a) to propose
several feedback and feedfonvard control meth-
ods for the control of long term and short term
disturbances in the extrusion line, and (b) to
evaluate these methods using various load
changes on a single screw plasticating extruder.
Part I presents the results of feedback control-
lers, while Part I1 presents the results of feed-
forward controllers.
CONTROL THEORY
System Analysis
Before any control action can be taken, one
needs to define the control objective and the
variables to be used. There are many variables
in the extrusion process, some of which are
used as manipulated variables, i.e., variables
which can be changed by external manipula-
tion. Some others are controlled variables
which are controlled through the manipulated
variables. The rest of them are load variables,
i.e., variables which are difficult or impossible
to control. The relationship among those vari-
ables and the control algorithm are shown in
Fig. 1. Table 1 lists most variables in an extru-
sion line and the possible usage of them. From
the process point of view, an extrusion line can
be broken down to three sections as shown in
Fi g. 2. Each section has its own dynamic char-
acteristic which can be determined through
MANIPULATED
VARIABLES VARIABLES
LOAD
VARIAELES
Fig. 1 . Relationship among load variables, manipulated
variables, and controlled variables in extrusion control.
Table 1. Variables used in an extrusion line
Load Manipulated Controlled
Variables Variable Variable Variable
Resin properties X
Resin shapes X
Feed rate X X
Screw speed X X
Screw torque X
Barrel temperature X X
Barrel heater power X
Back pressure valve X
Melt temperature X X
Die temperature X
Die pressure X X X
Die flow restrictor X
Die lip or die size X
Output rate X
Extrudate quality X
Extrudate dimension X
Take-up speed X
supply
198
POLYMER ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE, MID-FEBRUARY, 1986, VOI. 26, NO. 3
Process Control of Polymer Extrusion. Part I: Feedback Control
DYNAMIC
EXTRUDER
CHARACTERISTICS
DYNAMIC DYNAMIC
O I E TAKE-UP
+
CHARACTERISTICS - CHARACTERISTICS
open-loop tests. Control actions can be done
either on each individual section or on the whole
line. For example, if extrudate dimension is the
controlled variable, the take-up speed, the
screw speed, or the die flow restrictor may be
chosen as the manipulated variable. If melt
temperature is the controlled variable, barrel
heater power supply, back pressure valve, or
die temperature may be chosen as the manipu-
lated variable. Here the take-up characteristic
has little effect on the control action. In all
cases, dynamic relationship among controlled
variables, manipulated variables, and load vari-
ables has to be determined before any closed-
loop control action. Detailed dynamic modelling
of the polymer extrusion is given elsewhere (1 0).
In this study, the take-up speed was used as the
manipulated variable, the measured extrudate
thickness was used as the controlled variable,
while the screw speed was chosen as the load
variable. The schematic diagram of the feed-
back control mechanism used in this study is
shown in Fi g. 3.
Digital Filters
Noises in the measurement may affect the
control action, therefore, on-line filtering is
needed in the control algorithm. Owing to the
easy use of the digital filters, analog type of
filters are not considered. There are several
digital filters available ( 1 1 - 13).
( 1 ) Digital Version of Analog Filter:
This filter is the discrete-time formulation of
the conventional analog filter, sometimes called
first-order filter or exponential filter, and can
be expressed as:
Xk+l =ffUk +( 1 - (Y)Xk
( 1 )
where X is the filtered output, U is the meas-
ured signal, k is the k-th data point, (Y =1 - exp
( - t s / Tf ) , t, is the sampling time, 7- is the filter
time constant, and 0 5 (Y 5 1 .
(2) Double Filter:
Double filter is a cascade of two first-order
filters. This filter can further remove the drift
in the raw signal. The discrete expression is:
x k + , =y xk +( 1 - y ) x k (2)
where 0 5 y 5 1 . Xk is the output from Eq 1.
(3) Moving Average Filter:
filter is:
The discrete expression of the moving average
l N
where N is the N-th data point and P is number
( 3)
xN=- 1 Xk
p k=N-P
Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of control mechanism used in
this study.
of data points used for calculating the average
value. This filter is not as effective as the ex-
ponential filter for a dynamic response since it
only takes an arithmetic mean of data points.
(4) High Order Filters:
In a general sense, any transfer function is a
filter since it transforms input signals to output
signals dynamically. The first order filter may
introduce a phase lag in the closed-loop control
system. A high order filter developed in the
Laplace domain can solve this problem and it
can also be used as a band-pass or a band-stop
filter. A typical band-stop filter used by Costin,
et al. (9), was in the form
(s +&)2
H( s ) =
( s +a)(s +b)
(4)
where a and b are the lower and upper cutoff
frequencies.
The digital version analog filter and the dou-
ble filter were tried in this study because of
their simplicity. From the off-line analysis, dou-
ble filter was found only slightly better than the
digital version analog filter. Therefore the latter
was used in this study where a was chosen as
0.4.
The cutoff frequency of a filter was affected
by the sampling frequency. There is no good
theory about the sampling and controlling fre-
quencies. In most literatures, authors did not
discuss the frequencies they used. In polymer
extrusion analysis, Menges, et al. (14). used a
sampling period of three seconds to control the
extruder throughput. Kochhar, et al. (15), used
a sampling period of 12.5 seconds to determine
the dynamic response of melt temperature.
Rudd (7) mentioned a scanning rate of 30 sec-
onds in a sheet extrusion control. Hassen, et al.
(16). used a 10 Hz sampling frequency for the
control of melt temperature. Costin, et al. (9),
used 2 Hz as their sampling frequency for the
process control.
There seems to have no agreement in choos-
ing appropriate frequencies. Higher frequency
sampling and controlling may increase the bur-
den of computer. On the other hand, lower fre-
quency sampling and controlling may not be
able to catch the dynamic response of the proc-
ess. Fertick (17) proposed that the sampling
frequency of a PI controller should be:
POLYMER ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE, MID-FEBRUARY, 1986, Vol, 26, NO. 3 199
(5)
and the controlling frequency of the PI control-
ler should be
where t, is the controller integral time, ts is the
sampling period, t, is the controlling period, tps
is the process time constant, and rr is the filter
time constant. However, he did not explain the
criteria of determining these frequencies.
The sampling frequency and the controlling
frequency used in this study were 1 Hz.
PI Controller
Proportional and integral control is a common
feedback control method. The general expres-
sion in the time domain is ( 1 1, 12, 18):
where V is the controller output, e is the error
between the set point and the measurement, K,
is the proportional constant (gain), and TJ is the
integration constant (reset time). The function
of K, is to increase the process response rate
and the effect of 71 is to decrease the offset
caused by Kc. Because the PID controller is
much more difficult to tune and the noise in the
measured data may make the system unstable,
the derivative action is not considered in this
control algorithm.
In terms of the digital control, the discrete
expression of the PI controller can be written
as :
r
where n is the nth controlling point and t, the
sampling period. In this study, V is the take-up
speed and e is the error between the measured
thickness and the set point.
Smith Predictor Dead Time Compensation
One difficulty faced by the conventional feed-
back control is the relatively long dead time
compared with the process response time. For
most industrial extrusion lines, the measuring
devices are located far away from the die. The
long dead time usually makes the feedback con-
trol difficult to tune (1 2, 18).
Smith, in 1957, proposed a mechanism which
may compensate this dead time by a postulated
process model. The block diagram is shown in
Fig. 4, where block (1) is the process transfer
function, td in block (2) is the dead time of the
process, block (4) is the postulated process
transfer function, t 2 in block (3) is the estimated
dead time of the process, and block (5) is the
controller. The combination of blocks (3), (4)
and (5) is called the Smith predictor, which is
coupled with the control function. If the postu-
lated process transfer function and dead time
are exactly the same as the process function
and dead time, for a set point change, the sys-
tem response can be written as
B. Yang and L. James Lee
200
POLYMER ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE, MID-FEBRUARY, 1986, Vol. 26, No. 3
where y, y, and y* are intermediate variables
shown in Fi g. 4.
Equat i on 1 1 shows that with the Smith pre-
dictor, the process dead time can be compen-
sated and the system block diagram can be
simplified to the one shown in Fi g. 5a.
The essences of the Smith predictor are the
postulated process function and the dead time
chosen. Among the two, the accuracy of the
estimated dead time in the model is more im-
portant than the accuracy of the postulated
process function owing to the exponential func-
tion accompanied with it.
For a load coming into the control loop by-
passing the Smith predictor, the Smith predic-
tor cannot compensate the dead time effect as
shown in Fi g. 5b where CL is the combination
of blocks (3), (4) and (5) in Fig. 4.
Meyer, et al. (19) used a simulation program
to evaluate the response of the Smith predictor.
Results showed that with a significant time
delay, the Smith predictor worked better than
the PID controller for a set point change.
Since the take-up speed was used as the ma-
nipulated variable, the line speed changed dur-
ing the controlling period. Therefore, the dead
time in this study was not a constant, which
must be calculated on-line by the following
equation
L
Fi g. 4. Block diagram of the Smith predictor dead time
cornpensat ion.
i a i
Y( S1
Lbl
-
Y I S )
I I
Fig. 5. (a)SimpltJied blockdiagramof the Smith predictor
for set point changes, [b) simplified block diagram of the
Smith predictor for load changes.
Process Control of Polymer Extrusion. Part I: Feedback Control
POLYMER ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE, MID-FEBRUARY, 1986, VOI. 26, No. 3 201
L
t d =-
U
where L is the distance between the measuring
device and the die, while u is the take-up speed.
For the on-line process control, a digital version
of the Smith predictor was used. The derivation
is given in the Appendix.
EXPERIMENTAL
Equipment
The extruder used is a 2 4 2 inch diameter, 24
to 1 L/D ratio single screw plasticating extruder
made by NRM Corporation. The barrel is heated
by four separate heater sections controlled by
time proportioning controllers and on-off relay
switches. Screw speed can be controlled man-
ually or remotely by sending different voltages
into a Reliance control motor. The correlation
between the input voltage and the screw speed
shows a linear relationship except at very low
screw speeds (i.e., <10 rpm) where the correla-
tion is a function of the material processed.
A rectangular slit die is used in this study.
The die opening is 0.029 inch thick and 4
inches wide and consists of two pieces of steel.
Temperature around the die is controlled by two
separate controllers which are the same as the
barrel temperature controllers.
The cooling line consists of a series of rollers,
rods, and air dispensers to support and cool the
extrudate between the die and the take-up de-
vice. The speed of the take-up device is con-
trolled by a Reliance electrical speed controller.
The speed controller adjusts the take-up rollers
from 0 to 53 rpm either manually or remotely.
There are many gauging methods being used
in the extrusion line. A list of pros and cons for
ten widely used gauging methods is given by
Levy (20). Two gauging devices were tried in
this study, a Beta gauge made by Accuray (Se-
ries No. 400) and a pneumatic linear variable
differential transformer (LVDT) made by Schae-
vitz (PPD-125). Both are non-contacting type of
measuring devices. The Beta gauge was found
inappropriate for this application because the
width of the extrudate is too narrow, so the
LVDT was chosen. The thickness measured by
the LVDT is a relative thickness between the
supporting base and the gauge nozzle. The ex-
trudate must be kept at close contact with the
base; otherwise the thickness measured may
not be correct.
Four pressure transducers were mounted on
the barrel and one on the die. All five are model
422A pressure transducers manufactured by
Dynisco but with different pressure range. Cal-
ibration of these transducers was done off-line.
The dynamic response of pressure transducers
was neglected in this study.
Several exposed iron-constantan thermocou-
ples with a 1h inch extended tip were used to
measure the melt temperature in the barrel.
These temperatures were not used in the proc-
ess control. A '/I6 inch diameter capillary type
iron-constantan thermocouple was installed at
the die. The thermocouple tip, when mounted,
protruded into the polymer melt inside the die.
The signal from the thermocouple was sent to
an auto reference thermocouple junction box.
A VAX- 1 1 /780 minicomputer made by Digital
Equipment Company was used to carry out the
open-loop test and the on-line control.
Material
An extrusion grade poly(methy1 methacrylate)
(PMMA (PL- lo), Plaskolite) was used in this
study. The rheological properties of this mate-
rial were reported elsewhere (2 1).
Experimental Scheme
Control experiments were carried out in the
following way. An open-loop test was done first
to find out dynamic responses of the controlled
variables to the manipulated variables and load
variables. Controller parameters were then de-
termined from the dynamic responses. The
closed-loop control was carried out at two
stages. The PI controller was tried first. The
result was then compared with the Smith pre-
dictor method. An interactive Fortran program
was written for this study. Details of the pro-
gram are given elsewhere (22). Figure 6 shows
the flow chart of this program where the feed-
forward controller is also included, which will
be discussed in Part I1 (23).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Open-Loop Test
Since the extrudate thickness was used as
the controlled variable, the take-up speed was
used as the manipulated variable and the screw
speed was used as the load change, dynamic
responses of extrudate thickness to the take-up
speed change and to the screw speed change
were studied.
Fifteen sets of data were taken for various
step changes of take-up speed. The shape of
each set of data differed slightly. For simplicity,
the dynamic response of extrudate thickness to
take-up speed was modelled as a first-order
transfer function. Since the take-up device re-
sponded fast, its dynamics were neglected. For
a PI controller under a load change, the integral
of absolute error (IAE) criterion gives ( 1 1):
-0.986
KKc =0.984 ( : ) =0.497 (13)
-0.707
7
- =0.608 ( : ) =0.372 (14)
71
and Kc =-0.49, rI =8.0
where K is the process gain (= -0.991, K, is
the controller gain, t d is the process dead time
B. Yang and L. James Lee
START
7
CHOOSE:
1. P I CONTROLLER
2. SMI TH PREOICTMI TAKE-UP
3. FEEOFODUARD CONTROLLER
4 , TAUE-UP SPEED CHANGE
5 . SCREW SPEEO CHANGE
SCREW
U/
ENTER CONTROLLER
PARAMETERS
TYPES OF CHANGE
_I P I CONTROLLER e l l - 1 SMI TH PDEOICTOR FEEOFORWARO
4 /
I PLOT THICKNESS 1
1 ko
Fi g. 6. Flow chart of the control program.
(= 6 s), T is the process time constant (= 3 s) ,
and T~ is the controller reset time.
Under the set point change, the IAE criterion
gives:
KKc =0.758 ( : ) =0.417 (15)
-0.861
T
- =1.02 +0.323 =0.374 (16)
71
and K, =- 0.42, 71 =8.0
These calculated values were used as the initial
guess for the controller.
Figure 7 shows typical dynamic responses to
a screw speed change from 6 to 14 rpm. All
pressure responses and extrudate thickness
change were modelled well by first-order trans-
fer functions.
PI Controller and Smith Predictor
Figure 8 shows the response of the PI con-
troller for a set point change from 18 to 15 mils
at the screw speed of 10 rpm. The filter time
constant used was 0.4 and Kc =-0.35, 71 =
12.0. Figure 9 shows the control result for a
step change in screw speed from 14 to 10 rpm.
All parameters were the same as those in Fig.
8.
The Smith predictor was tested for a set point
change from 18 to 15 mils. The result is shown
in Fig. 10. The screw speed was 10 rpm. Kc was
-0.35, while T~ was 12.0. The process time con-
stant was set at 8.0 seconds. The initial guess
of kc was -0.49 and T~ was 8.0. For screw speed
changes, the results are similar to those of the
PI control.
J udging from Fig. 8, the PI controller worked
938.8
1781.8
820. 8
3053. 8
2050.4
P3
p2 I;:::::
I:;::::
0.0 25.8 51.2 78.8 102.4
TI ME (SEC)
Fig. 7. Dynamic responses to the screw speed change
from 6 to 14 rpm (P.5: die pressure (psi). Pl - P4 : barrel
pressures (psi), TB: barrel temperature PF), TD: melt tem-
perature PF) . H: extrudate thickness (mil)).
m
' ~ t . . . . ' . . . . , . . . . l . . . . l
0 50 100 150 200
CONTROL CYCLES ( 1 HZ 1
Fi g. 8. Experimental result of the PI controller f or a set
point change from 18 to 15 mils (IAE =8.1).
7
m
m.
Fi g. 9. Experimental results of the PI controller f or a
screw speed changefrom 14 to 10 rpm flAE =9.2).
well for the step change of set point except that
there was a time delay due to the process dead
time. For load changes, the PI controller was
not very efficient owing to the process dead time
in the extrusion line. The reason that IAE val-
ues are not significantly different for load
changes and set point changes is because the
existence of measurement delay. The actual
thickness response was sensored several sec-
202 POLYMER ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE, MID-FEBRUARY, 1986, Vol. 26, NO. 3
Process Control of Polymer Extrusion. Part I: Feedback Control
onds later by the LVDT. If one takes into ac-
count this measurement delay, the IAE for set
point changes will be much better than that of
load changes.
The performance of the Smith predictor was
slightly better than the PI controller for the step
change of s A point as judged from the integral
absolute error shown in Fi gs. 8 and 10. Fluc-
tuations in the response curve were due to the
inaccuracy of the postulated process model, the
error in the estimated process dead time, and
the digital sampling problem. For large process
dead time or frequent changes of set point
(which is unlikely in the case that extrudate
thickness is the controlled variable, but is very
common in the case that barrel temperature
settings are controlled variables), the Smith pre-
dictor would work much better than the PI con-
troller.
. ! ? t . . . . l . . . . I . . . . I . . . . I
0 50 100 150 200
CONTRM CYCLES I 1 HZ 1
Fi g. 10. Experimental result of the Smith predictor f or a
set point change from 18 to 15 mils (IAE =7.4).
CONCLUSIONS
This study provided an on-line process con-
trol of a single screw plasticating extruder. Two
feedback control algorithms, a conventional PI
controller and the Smith predictor, were tested
by step changes of set point and load variable.
Results showed that both the PI controller and
the Smith predictor were satisfactory for step
changes of set point, but not for load changes.
Because of the inconsistency of the extrusion
line and the inaccuracy of the process model,
the Smith predictor showed only a slight im-
provement over the PI controller in this study.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to express their ap-
preciation to Professor W. K. Lee and Messrs.
R. W. Nelson, D. Chan, and M. B. Kukla for their
help and useful discussions. This work was
supported by the OSU Polymer Engineering Re-
search Program, which is sponsored by Amoco
Foundation, General Motors, Huntsman Chem-
ical, and Plaskolite Companies. We thank Plas-
kolite Company for the material donation.
APPENDIX
Derivation of Smith Predictor in the Discrete
Form (12)
The Smith predictor algorithm shown in Fig.
5 can be redrawn as in Fig. A- 1 .
where G( s ) =Gp(s)ePt dS is the process transfer
function
Gc(s) =K, 1 +- is the controller transfer
function.
is the estimated process trans-
Kb
G ~ ( s ) =-
r r s +1
fer function.
[
1 - exp(-st,)
Gho is the zero-order hold
S
y is the thickness output.
u k is the filtered thickness in the discrete
form.
Ysp is the set point in the discrete form.
t , is the sampling time.
M is the value of manipulated variable output
from the controller.
C, (z) is the Z transform of the model output.
El , Ekr Bm. k. and Cm. k are intermediate vari-
ables.
From this plot, the model output C, is related
to the input M as
If the estimated process model Gb(s)e-t i s is
identical to the process model G( s ) , then
Substituting the transfer function into Eq A-1,
we get
For the process dead time, if we denote the
integer number of sampling period as N , then
the following equality holds:
t 2 =(N +p)t s (A-4)
where p is a value between 0 and 1. With this
expression of t d, Eq A-3 can be rewritten as:
L(S1
Y (S)
I
t.
Fi g. A-1. Detailed block diagram of the Smith predictor.
POLYMER ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE, MID-FEBRUARY, 1986, Vol. 26, No. 3
203
B. Yang and L. James Lee
Taking 2 transform of Eq A-5, it gives
where A2 =e-
and A3 =e-Ofs/T
To compensate the process dead time, we define
Cross multiplying and inverting gives
Bm, k =K p ( 1 - Az) uk-1 +A2Brn.k-1 (A-9)
so
Ek =Ys p k - u k - (f%n.k - c m. k )
(A-10)
Note that if the proposed model is correct, then
uk =Cm. k
and the input to the controller G, will be
Ek =Ys p k - Bm. k
(A-1 1)
For the PI controller
so
(A- 13)
or
Mk =Mk-1 -t K, 1 - Ek - KcEk-1 (A-15)
( 3
For the process control, Eqs A- 7, A-9, A - 1 0 ,
and A-15 are used. To start the control action,
the most recent output voltage of take-up device
is stored into the M array as the initial value of
Mk. If the process dead time varies during the
control action, the values of A2, AS, and N will
vary at every controlling interval. At a given
moment, the dead time is calculated from the
most recent take-up speed. The drawback of
this calculation is that, unless the take-up
speed is constant, the calculated dead time will
always deviate slightly from the actual dead
time.
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