Decoupling Level Flow Process Control

This Final Year Research Project (FYRP) which entitled "Decoupling Level Flow
Process Control" is purposely done to model level and flow process using step test and
several set of experiments. Data extracted from the experiments were used to build
process models and were simulated in the MATLAB simulink since it is the most
appropriate software that can model the process. In order to achieve themain objectives
of the project which is to design the decoupler as well as reducing or eliminating the
interactions, some calculation involves in the decoupler design stage.
As a requirement to the project, some modifications have been done on the equipment
involved. From the experimental works, transfer function for level process, flow process
and interaction between level and flow process could be obtained, hi the simulation, the
trial is divided into three parts namely openloop process, closed loop with PIDprocess
and closed loop withPID plus a decoupler process. All the responses were analyzed to
compare the effectiveness of the decoupler.
Based on the result, it is shown that the level will deviate in a great amount if step
change is applied in an open loop process. However, the deviation decreases as the
conventional PID controller is introduced in the process. As expected, with the presence
of decoupler, the result will bebetter since the decoupler helps the controlled variable to
be as close as possible to the desired set point. It is also observed that the performance
of the decoupler is better as the flow rate increases as well as at higher gain of the
interaction process; in other words, the decoupler works best for strong interaction
process.
The objectives specified for this project have been successfully achieved within the time
constraint given. Further research could be made to observe the performance of the
decoupler in the industries.