Self-tuning Regulator Based Cascade Control for Temperature of Exothermic Stirred Tank Reactor

In the process of chemical industries production, an exothermic stirred tank reactor permits the reaction to release the heat due to mixing of substances. The release of heat due to the exothermic process in the stirred tank makes the system nonlinear and uncertain unless it is not regulated properly. In order to regulate the heat release, the self-regulated cascade control model of reactor temperature plant is developed with reference to material and energy balance model of exothermic stirred tank reactor. In this paper the recursive least square algorithm is used for self-tuning regulator cascade control online temperature plant and its controller parameters estimation and also the temperature plant output has been simulated in the presence and absence of a primary self-tuning controller. The use of the secondary loop PI controller will respond rapidly to the flow rate of cooling jacket plant that in turn cascade with the disturbance variables like inlet feed concentration and cooling water temperature. The reactor temperature is monitored to the desired steady state level and becomes stable for further steady state value of parameters. The parameters of the temperature plant will also be stable with online parameter estimating loop of the control system. The designing of master controller and desired plant model using minimum degree pole placement algorithm is highlighted. With the developed SIMULINK design of self-tuning controller, the better comparative results have been achieved over Internal Model Control (IMC), Model Predictive Control (MPC) and conventional based temperature controller plant.