Enhanced Modified Smith Predictor for Delay Dominated Unstable Processes

Location of poles on the right hand side of s-plane for a process provides unstable behaviour. Obtaining desired output from an unstable process is truly a difficult task especially for processes with considerable dead time. Processes like combustion chamber, distillation column, and chemical reactors are well-known unstable processes with considerable time delay. Smith predictor based control technique is a well-known methodology for controlling such processes with considerable dead time. But, this technique fails to perform satisfactorily during transient as well as steady state operating phases for delay dominated unstable processes. To ensure improved close-loop response for delay dominated processes, Majhi and Atherton proposed modified Smith predictor technique. However, its performance is not found to be adequate, in addition tuning of more than one controller is quite complicated for delay dominated processes with pole located on right half plane. To overcome this limitation, here we propose a unified tuning methodology with simple modified Smith predictor scheme which is capable to provide an overall improved performance in terms of enhanced load recovery. Effectiveness of the proposed scheme is verified through simulation study with the well-known delay dominated unstable process models representing the behavior of chemical reactor and distillation column in comparison with conventional and modified Smith predictor methodologies.