LACr for MIMO Chemical Processes

Processes involved in chemical industries are generally of Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) System configuration. Most of them are non-linear in nature. Centralized and decentralized control systems are used for obtaining desirable output from them. MIMO Systems having strong interactions need to be controlled by a centralized controller mechanism, whereas the mild interacting systems can be controlled by decentralized controllers. This paper presents Linear Algebra-based Controllers (LACr) for two chemical processes, Exothermic reaction and Ideal CSTR. The controller designs are based on First Order Plus Dead Time (FOPDT) models obtained by the approximation of real processes, which are of higher order and non-linear in nature. Both centralized and decentralized control systems using LACr are designed for the case studies. The performance of LACr are tested with respect to servo changes using simulations. Decentralized LACr was found to be ineffective for non-linear MIMO processes, whereas centralized controllers yielded fruitful results.