(78e) Experimental System and Process Data Describing Model-Based Control Strategies in the Chemical Engineering Curriculum

The two pillars of control system design in chemical process engineering applications involve either feedback or model-based approaches like Internal Model Control (IMC). Feedback control has been the industrial standard for decades and while it is robust and straightforward to implement has the drawback of not being agile enough to deal with processes exhibiting long time delays. These delays are significant in many chemical processes. However, the combination of model-based methods, with the Smith predictor concept, provides an excellent alternative for systems with long time delays. We will discuss a novel experimental system designed to illustrate the advantages of this latter approach for a system showing significant time delays which we have included as an experimental component to our senior year process control course in the chemical engineering department. The system has served as an invaluable tool in enhancing our students' understanding of theoretical material taught in lectures and should be of interest to the larger chemical engineering educational community.