Comparison of Cascade and Feedforward-Feedback Controllers for Temperature Control on Stirred Tank Heater Systems

The temperature control in stirred tank heater (STH) systems is important, especially since the equipment is utilized in a wide variety of industries such as oil and gas. However, within the current STH control process there is often a small disturbance which adversely affects the overall process and it is quite difficult to solve with a regular feedback configuration. Many researchers have applied cascade and feedforward control configurations to solve this problem. Therefore, this paper discusses a comparison of cascade and feedforward-feedback control configurations in maintaining and regulating temperature in the STH. The results show that a cascade controller configuration performs better in various test conditions than a feedforward-feedback controller.