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NON LINEAR PID CONTROL OF pH PROCESS

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 2015, International Conference on Emerging Trends in Engineering Research(ICETER)

NON LINEAR PID CONTROL OF pH

PROCESS
P.Anbumalar1, J.janani 2, Sriram 3, Uwise 3
1
Assistant Professor, Department of EIE, B. S. Abdur Rahman University, Chennai, India
2
PG Student, Department of EIE, B. S. Abdur Rahman University, Chennai, India
3
PG Student, Department of EIE, B. S. Abdur Rahman University, Chennai, India
anbumalarice@gmail.com

Abstract Linear PID controllers are useful enough for

Monitoring and controlling the pH
level is often performed in many chemical,
industrial processes. It is important to improve
the productivity and at the same time the
robustness of these processes. A PID controller
is often used to deal with this process;
however, it can only react to changes in a
reference signal. On the other hand, a
nonlinear PID (NPID) approach is proactive
and make which is usually known beforehand
in a pH neutralization process. Furthermore a
NPID approach is more sophisticated than a
PID in terms of handling input and output
constraints, as well as dealing with difficult
system behaviours like high nonlinearity and
long time delays.
Keywords— PID, NPID, Gain-scheduling.
controlling a normal physical process and
attaining the desired operating conditions,
but the requirements for high-performance
control with changes in operating conditions
or disturbances are often beyond the
capabilities of conventional PID controllers.
Amongst these approaches, nonlinear PID
(N-PID) control is viewed as one of the most
effective and simple method for industrial
applications [1] Nonlinear PID control may
be any control structure of the following
form:
𝑢 𝑡 = 𝐾𝑝 ∗ 𝑒 𝜏 + 𝐾𝑖 𝑒 𝜏 +
𝐾𝑑∗𝑑𝑒(𝜏)𝑑𝑡

• Introduction The nonlinear plant is assumed to have a

The PID algorithm is the most popular
feedback controller used within the process
industries and highly preferred controller for
various tedious processes. It has been
successfully used for over 50 years. It is a
robust easily understood algorithm that can
provide excellent control performance
despite the varied dynamic characteristics of
process plant. Proportional-integral-
derivative (PID) controllers have been the
most popular and the most commonly used
industrial controllers in the past years. The
popularity and widespread use of PID
controllers are attributed primarily to their
simplicity and performance characteristics
with accurate set point tracking for the given
fixed operating conditions. The conventional
PID controller cannot satisfy the
requirements of different operating
conditions.
continuous, parameterized family of set
points, and the dynamics are represented by
the corresponding parameterized family of
linearization’s. Based on this information a
parameterized linear controller is designed,
so that at each set point, the closed loop
linearization has the desired set point. Then a
nonlinear controller is computed such that if
it is linearized about any set point, the
designed linear controller for that set point is
obtained, therefore the nonlinear closed loop
system should perform well when operated at
any set point. The main disadvantage for the
most part of the existing procedures on PID
controller design is that the desired transient
performances cannot be guaranteed in the
presence of nonlinear plant parameter
variations and unknown external
disturbances[3].
 2015, International Conference on Emerging Trends in Engineering Research(ICETER)

[2] process modeling

• Introduction to pH process
pH is a measurement of the
concentration of hydronium ions ([ ]
commonly abbreviated to [ ]) in aqueous
solution. Hence pH control is really
concentration control of a mixing process
(SHINSKEY, 1973) and consequently
exhibits the characteristics of mixing
processes, such as mixing dead time,
residence time and dynamic gain. However, Fig. pH process Continuous
pH control also has its own unique attributes, Stirred Tank For pH Titration
the most distinctive of which is characterized Control.
by a neutralization or titration curve. pH is
the negative logarithm of hydronium ion (or
hydrogen ion) concentration, and this results
in the familiar 'S' or ‘z’ shaped titration curve
which defines the steady-state characteristic • Mathematical modeling for pH process
of a pH process. Because of the logarithmic
nonlinearity, it is possible for the gain of a
pH process to change by as much as a factor
of 10 per pH unit which is given by the
equation (2).
Based on this general equation, two
𝑝𝐻 =
equations have been derived to express the
−𝑙𝑜𝑔10[𝐻 + ] (2)
pH process in the CSTR system. The
• pH process description derivation of these equations follows the
The process considered for the control general approach adopted by previous
design is a batch process. The acetic acid is researchers in this field (e.g. (McAvoy, Hsu,
added with sodium hydroxide to form & Lowenthals 1972;Mwembeshi, Kent, &
sodium acetate in a continuously stirred tank Salhi 2001;Nie, Loh, & Hang 1996)).
as shown in the figure 1. In this process
volume is constant because it is considered
to be a batch process. Either the out let from 𝑑𝑥𝑎
𝑣 = 𝐹1 𝐶1 − 𝐹1
the process tank should be at the top of the 𝑑𝑡
tank or there should be a level measurement + 𝐹2 𝑥𝑎 (3)
and control unit to check the level and use an
on/off control for the inlet flow. After the
volume needed (1000 l) is reached. The 𝑑𝑥𝑎
𝑣 = 𝐹2 𝐶2 − 𝐹1
content of the tank is mixed well using a 𝑑𝑡
stirrer. Using a pH sensor the pH value of the + 𝐹2 𝑥𝑏 (4)
solution is measured. Here, base flow rate is
kept constant and the acid flow-rate is The ph process considered is acetic acid
continuously varied in steps. Sodium (weak acid) added with sodium hydroxide
hydroxide of constant flow-rate is (strong base) to form sodium acetate. The
continuously neutralized by Acetic acid general equation for the pH process may be
which acts as a manipulated variable. The written as follows
steady-state of process occurs when the 𝑥𝑏
𝑥𝑏 + 10−𝑝𝐻 − 10−𝑝𝐻14 − =0
concentrations of hydrogen and hydroxyl 1+10 𝑝𝐾𝑎 −𝑝𝐻
(5)
ions are equivalent, for different base flow
rate steady state pH is obtained. pH of the
The titration curve or the I/O
mixture is measured continuously using pH
characteristic curve should be obtained
sensor and transmitted to the pH transmitter.
which gives the perfect dynamics of the
 2015, International Conference on Emerging Trends in Engineering Research(ICETER)

process. It can be manually plotted. Non linear pid design

Using Matlab functions, like ode solver
and fzero function to solve the
differential equation and the algebraic pH
equation respectively, in a m-file with
initial and operating conditions. The
results are then plotted. The titration
curve for pH process is shown in the
figure 1.4. In this plot the curve is ‘z’
shaped because we neutralize base with
the flow of acid. And the pH value stops
increasing around 4 because of the
buffering effect that is caused by the
weak acid and its salt.
The main algorithm of the NPID controller is
based on a nonlinear function as inherent
part of the controller. The main goal is to
achieve a desired response in the output of
the plant when conventional PID could not
achieve it. Therefore the PID has been
reconstructed using a nonlinear function as
follows [2]:
𝑢
= 𝑘𝑝 𝜑 𝑒𝑝 , 𝛼𝑝 , 𝛿𝑝 + 𝐾𝑖 𝜑 𝑒𝑖 , 𝛼𝑖 , 𝛿𝑖
+ 𝐾𝑑 𝜑 𝑒𝑑 , 𝛼𝑑 , 𝛿𝑑 (6)

I. Operating Data for pH Process. Where φ(x,α,δ) is the nonlinear function[2]:

Process variables/ Nominal values

parameters of Process
acid dissociation
1.8*10-5 (7)
constant(ka)
water dissociation
10-14 Kp, Ki , Kd are the controller gains and they
constant(Kw)
having the same meaning as the conventional
acid inflow rate(l/min)(F1) 0-200
PID gains.
base inflow rate(F2) 512
acid inflow [4] Simulation Results
0.32
concentration(moles/l)(C1)
The closed loop response with PI
base inflow
0.05 Control for every operating region in pH
concentration(moles/l)(C2) process is shown in the figure 1.3 where it is
volume of the tank(l3) 1000 very clear that the 3 regions in the middle of
the process where the change of output is
very high for a very small change in input is
not controlled by a PI controller that is
specifically designed for that particular
region. This shows the very difficulty of pH
control over the sensitive and nonlinear parts
of ph process which is overcome by the
NPID.

Titration curve for pH

process

Fig.1.3 closed loop response of pH process

 2015, International Conference on Emerging Trends in Engineering Research(ICETER)
[5] CONCLUSION
In this paper, nonlinear PID
controller has been designed for the pH
process. The servo performance of pH with
conventional PID controller is compared
with performance of pH process with NPID
controller. From the simulation studies , it is
inferred that closed loop response of ph
process with NPID has an ability to track the
setpoint changes.
[6] References
1. Design of an enhanced nonlinear PID
controller Y.X. Su , Dong Sun , B.Y.
Duan, Department of Manufacturing
Engineering and Engineering
Management, City University of Hong
Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon,
Hong Kong b School of Electro-
Mechanical Engineering, Xidian
University, Xi’an 710071, China
Accepted 2 March 2005.
2. Design of nonlinear PID controllers, W.J
RUGH, department of electronics and
computer engineering, johns hookins
university, Baltimore MD21218.
3. PI and PID Controller Design for
Nonlinear Systems in the Presence of a
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Time Delay via Singular Perturbation
Technique Valery D. Yurkevich
Novosibirsk State Technical University,
Novosibirsk, 630092, Russia.
4. Ai-Poh Loh,Dhruba Sankar De, and P.
R. Krishnaswamy , ―pH and Level
Controller for a pH Neutralization
Process‖, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 2001, 40
(16), pp 3579–3584.
5. Alvarez, H., Londono, C., de Sciascio,
F., & Carelli, R. 2001, "PH
neutralization process as a benchmark
for testing nonlinear
controllers",Industrial & Engineering
Chemistry Research, vol. 40, no. 11, pp.
2467-2473.
6. Bar-Eli, K. & Noyes, R. M. 1986, "A
model for imperfect mixing in a CSTR",
The journal of Chemical Physics, vol.
85, no. 6, pp. 3251-3257.
7. Bates, R. G. 1973, Determination of pH:
Theory and Practice, 2 edn,
John Wiley & Sons, Inc, New York.
8. Christian, G. D. 2004a, "Acid-Base
Equilibria," in Analytical
Chemistry,Sixth edn, John Wiley &
Sons, Inc., United States of America, pp.
214-260.