Process Emulator
Team leader: Kenji Nulman (Webmaster/Team coordinator)
Team members: Paul Knoke(Lead Programmer), Brett Levy(Operations and Safety Coordinator)
Previous student work: Keven Pearson (1993); Katherine Fretwell, Mansour Al-Mutairi, and Nathan Dunn (1997)
Mentors: Dr. Keith Levien, Dr. Alex Yakochi, Dr. David Hackleman (Oregon State ChE Professors)
Overview:
We are working on getting the process emulator operational for the process control class. The emulator is a combination of computer simulation and process equipment allowing the simulation inputs and outputs to appear as physically observable sight. The purpose of the emulator is to have an apparatus for use in dynamics and dynamic control experiments.
Emulator Break Down:
- 4 Tanks
- Each Tank has a feed line coming from a common header, which is fed by the circulation pump.
- Each Tank has a control valve on the exit line, which can be manipulated manually or by using the PC.
- Since there are 4 control valves and 4 measured levels, the process is a 4X4 MIMO (Multi-Input Multi-output) system
- The linear model of the system dynamics would be composed of 16 Transfer functions.
- It is assumed that the tanks are independent and identical.
Objectives:
- Get the emulator running at the nominal steady-state condition.
- Calibrate the control valves and pressure transducers.
- Obtain and hold the mid-tank level, nominal open-loop, operating point at start up.
- Find simple dynamic models of influences (transfer functions) of the control valves on the tanks.
- Run simple control experiments using Single-Input Single-Output (SISO) PI controllers for each of the four tanks.
Detailed Pictures and Diagrams:
- Process Flow Diagram
- Piping System
- Emulator Without The Casing
- Pressure Transducer
- Pneumatic Controller
- Overflow Device With Pressure Column
- Corroded Pressure Transducer
- Voltage Amplifier
- 50 Pin to NI instrument converter
- Pump
- Air Regulator
- Program Block Diagram
- Program Interface
Data:
Work Schedule:
- Monday 11:30-1:30 PM Gleeson 009
- Tuesday 3-5 PM Gleeson 009
- Wednesday 1-5:00 PM Gleeson 009
- Team Meetings: Wednesday 2:00 PM with Dr. Yakochi and Dr. Hackleman
Important Dates:
- Engineering Expo demonstration will occur Friday May 1, 2007.
- Final Oral project presentations will be during June 4-8, 2007.
- The final written technical report is due Friday June 1, 2007.
Updated PDS reports:
Presentations:
- Emulator Presentation (Winter Term 2007)
Posters:
- Engineering Expo Poster (Spring Term 2007)
Weekly Progress Report will be posted at the end of each week:
Contact Information:
Kenji Nulman, ChE Senior
Paul Knoke, BioE Senior
Brett Levy, Pre ChE Student
References:
The overview, breakdown, and objectives were provided with the assistance of Katherine Fretwell, Mansour Al-Mutairi, and Nathan Dunn's Multivariable Chemical Process Emulator: Interacting Dynamics in a Multi-Tank Process handout.
Relevant Work:
- Dunn, Nathan; Fretwell,Katherine; Al-Mutairi,Mansour "Multivariable Chemical Process Emulator: Interacting Dynamics in a Multi-Tank Process" May 1999
- Pearson, Kevin "NSF Process Control Emulator" December 1993
