A Quadruple Tank Process Control Experiment

Authors

  • Effendi Rusli University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Siong Ang University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Richard D. Braatz University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Abstract

A quadruple tank apparatus was developed for use in undergraduate chemical engineering laboratories that illustrates the performance limitations for multivariable systems posed by ill-conditioning, right half plane transmission zeros, and model uncertainties. The most novel aspect of the apparatus is that it has a configuration in which the time-varying movement of a right half plane transmission zero across the imaginary axis makes it impossible to control the process with a linear feedback controller. This appears to be the first educational laboratory experiment designed to clearly illustrate the extreme effects that time-varying dynamics can have on controllability of the process. Example identification and control results illustrate the use of the experiment in an undergraduate process control laboratory.

Author Biographies

Effendi Rusli, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Effendi Rusli received his BS from the University of Wisconsin and his MS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, both in chemical engineering. He is currently completing his PhD thesis on the analysis and control of systems described by multiscale simulation codes, with the main application being the electrodeposition of copper films and wires in microelectronic devices.

Siong Ang, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Siong Ang received his BS in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois under a Singapore Armed Forces Overseas Merit Scholarship and his MS from Stanford University. As part of his undergraduate thesis, he constructed quadruple-tank-process experiments and wrote the visualprogramming control interface currently used in the undergraduate process control laboratory.

Richard D. Braatz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Richard Braatz received his BS from Oregon State University and his MS and PhD from the California Institute of Technology. After a postdoctoral year at DuPont, he joined the faculty at the University of Illinois, where he is a Professor and University Scholar. His main research interest is in multiscale systems theory and its application. He has published three books, one of which is a textbook on fault detection and diagnosis.

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Published

2004-07-01

Issue

Vol. 38 No. 3 (2004): Summer 2004

Section

Manuscripts