Chemical Engineering Communications, Vol.165, 89-121, 1998
A simple method for tuning cascade control systems
A simple method for tuning controllers in a cascade system is presented. In this method, all the relations that facilitate the tuning procedures are well prepared in terms of figures or simple equations. Using these figures and equations, the controller tuning for different configurations of cascade systems becomes easy and straightforward when process models are available. On the other hand, when process models are not available, a simple method that uses one single run of step input experiment to develop such models is proposed. Based on these developments in the controller tuning and process models, an autotuning system that uses relay feedback is presented. Unlike the existing autotuning systems, this proposed system conducts identification and controller tuning in a decoupled manner. As a result, no excessive trial-and-error efforts for modeling, and tuning are required. Simulation results show the potential usage of such a method. It is interested to see that the resulting systems have almost compatible responses to those systems which have been designed optimally in one way or another as reported in the literature. It is not, however, the purpose of this article to emphasize on obtaining superior performance to all other existing methods, but to emphasize on its effectiveness and simplicity for application.
Keywords:PID CONTROLLERS;MODEL