Development of an optimal control scheme for the process of epoxy resins modification with a complicated mathematical model in the control loop.

Abstract

The problem of optimal control for a highly exothermal technological process with distributed state variables and with a large dead time is discussed. The main steps of creating a flexible control system with using the object model in the control loop are considered. It is shown that heat flux calorimetry is an effective experimental technique for the development of a process model based upon corresponding multistage kinetic model. It can be also applied to multiphase reaction systems together with simplified hydrodynamic models for mass transfer phenomena description. A successful application of this approach for developing the process mathematical model and its further introduction to the corresponding control system has been demonstrated for an important industrial process ? modification of epoxy resins with butanediol-1,4 for further synthesis of epoxy-urethane polymers with improved physico-chemical and mechanical properties. The process mathematical model makes it possible to specify the optimal operating mode for each resin and implement the optimal control.