Ronaldo Guimarães Corrêa

Industrial trials of paste drying in spouted beds under QDMC

Abstract Spouted bed has been extensively investigated by many authors for years, but the issue of controlling its operation still remains in basic developing stages. The present work consists of the application of an advanced control strategy (QDMC—Quadratic Dynamic Matrix Control) to automate the operation of a large-scale spouted bed dryer. The work on control strategies for spouted bed was motivated by the lack of references on this subject and the encouraging results obtained by Corrêa et al. (Corrêa, N.A.; Freire, J.T.; Corrêa, R.G. Improving operability of spouted beds using a simple optimizing control structure. Brazilian Journal of Chemical Engineering 1999 16 (4), 359–368; Corrêa N.A. Corrêa, R.G.; Freire, J.T. Adaptive control of paste drying in spouted bed using the GPC algorithm. Brazilian Journal of Chemical Engineering 2000 17 (4–7), 639–648; Corrêa, N.A.; Corrêa, R.G.; Freire, J.T. Self-tuning control of egg drying in spouted bed using the GPC algorithm. Drying Technology 2002 20 (4), 813–828.) for a laboratory-scale apparatus. The industrial-scale spouted bed dryer has a height of 4 m and a diameter of 66 cm. The same configuration of data acquisition unit, sensors, and interface developed for the laboratory-scale unit was employed. The dryer is capable of processing up to 20 L/h of pasty material. The powder moisture content (Ys), inferred from measurements of temperature at the exhaustion of the bed bulk, and the powder production rate (Pr), measured on-line by an electronic balance, are the controlled variables. The manipulated variables are: the paste inflow rate (W), regulated by an automatic pump, and the electrical power supply for air heating (P), regulated by a thyristor. The bed pressure drop, the airflow rate, and the information from the environment are monitored by means of an interfaced microcomputer. Experimental runs of drying up to 400 kg/day of an Al2O3 10% aqueous suspension were carried out. The results showed that the QDMC control is robust with respect to the main variables involved and is efficient in maintaining the operation of the bed under the constraints of the system. The major aim concerning the scale-up of spouted bed, which is the determination of the minimum amount of energy required to ensure spout stability, was accomplished by the constrained control strategy.

SELF-TUNING CONTROL OF EGG DRYING IN SPOUTED BED USING THE GPC ALGORITHM

ABSTRACT A spouted bed is used to dry many and different materials ranging from granules to pastes and suspensions. This work presents an implementation and tests of an advanced control strategy on a spouted bed dryer. Water was used as the ideal paste for tests. An adaptive control algorithm GPC (Generalized Predictive Control) was implemented. A microcomputer was used to maintain humidity and temperature set points of air in the dryer by manipulating electric power of heat exchanger and paste feed flow rate. Instrumentation was set-up with different sensors, interface and final control elements for operation. Stability and performance analysis of the control strategy was accomplished. A robust stable controller was obtained which had also encouraged us to extend the investigation of this control strategy to the drying of other pastes.

Adaptive control of paste drying in spouted bed using the GPC algorithm

Spouted bed is an equipment reasonable investigated for drying of many and different materials ranging from granules to pastes and suspensions. This work presents an implementation and tests of an advanced control strategy (GPC) on a spouted bed dryer. Water was used as the ideal paste for tests. A microcomputer PC-486 type was used to maintain humidity and temperature set points of air in the dryer by manipulating electric power of heat exchanger and paste feed flow rate. An instrumentation was set-up with different sensors, interface and final control elements for the process. The tests were carried out with pure water as ideal paste. Stability and performance analysis of the control strategy were accomplished. A stable controller was obtained which encouraged us to investigate this control strategy in the drying of other pastes too.

Improving operability of spouted beds using a simple optimizing control structure

In operations using spouted beds, it is of major importance, from an energy consumption point of view, to operate the process as close as possible to the minimum spout flow. At this point, the speed of the gas (for example, warm air in drying operations) is greater than the amount of heat and mass transfer involved, although it only transfers the minimum amount of momentum to maintain the spout. Therefore, by staying close to this minimum flow condition, it is possible to perform a stable operation and to obtain energy savings not only in the heating of the gas but also in its displacement by blowers. In order to improve the operation of such processes, a study is carried out by implementing a simple optimizing control structure on a spouted bed experimental set-up. The air flow is regulated by a frequency inverter, at the speed of blower rotation. A PI controller was used and the set-point for the air flow rate is calculated on-line by a simple and well-known minimization method called Golden Section Search. This set-point is constantly updated with values very close to the actual minimum spout flow rate. To accomplish the calculations and data acquisitions, a microcomputer with an interface and an analog signal conditioner is used .

Three-Dimensional Numerical Simulation of Semi-Cylindrical and Cylindrical Spouted Bed Hydrodynamics

Understanding of detailed transport phenomena occurring in spouted beds is necessary and fundamental for increasing the range of industrial applications. Especially for drying processes, detailed information about hydrodynamics is important, because it is closely related to heat and mass transfer. The use of semi-cylindrical spouted beds is a classical technique that emerged as an alternative to obtaining experimental data on the fluid dynamics of full-column spouted beds. This technique has been questioned, because the geometry of the bed must be altered for the visualization of the hydrodynamics occurring inside it, which, nevertheless, is the only way to obtain visual information on solid dynamics behavior inside the column. Therefore, the objective of this study was to revisit the semi-cylindrical spouted bed technique using computational fluid dynamics to perform numerical simulations and verifying these results against experimental results obtained in cylindrical and semi-cylindrical beds. Both simulated and experimental results were compared for the fluid dynamics of each system. The simulated results indicated that the flat wall had a great influence on the solid velocity, which is in accordance with the experimental observations already presented in the literature. However, little influence of this wall on static pressure, porosity profiles, and spout channel shape was observed in the simulated results, indicating a high fluid dynamic similarity between cylindrical and semi-cylindrical systems.

Velocity Profile in Fixed Beds: A Study on the Representativeness of the Experimental Measurement of Downstream Flow Characteristics

Although considerable progress has been made in the development of experimental techniques for investigating velocity distribution inside a fixed bed, these techniques were limited to special cases. Consequently, the velocity distribution is normally measured at downstream of the fixed bed and then this measurement is considered to be representative for the flow inside the bed. To evaluate the representativeness of this technique, this work presents a study of the change in the flow characteristics, starting from the boundary of the fixed bed within the pipe to a downstream position where the experimental measurement is taken, by using simulations based on computational fluid dynamics methods.

Drying stresses and strains in a spherical food model

An approach to model the drying mechanical effects occurring in a single sphere, representing a food model, is proposed. The mechanical properties were evaluated through compression tests and drying kinetics data were obtained under a laminar fluid flow. The Fickian model was used to represent the moisture content profiles and the mechanical model was formulated from elasticity theory. Deformations and cracks predicted from numerical solution were in agreement with experimental observations. This work helped to understand the relationship between mass transfer, shrinkage, stresses, strains and physical degradation.

COMPARISON AMONG PI, DMC, QDMC, AND GPC ALGORITHMS IN THE CONTROL OF THE SPOUTED BED DRYER

Abstract This article presents comparative analysis between the classical PI (proportional-integral control) and MPC (model predictive control) techniques for a drying process on spouted beds. The on-line experimental setups were carried out in a laboratory-scale plant of a spouted bed dryer. The main objective was to optimize the plant operation by searching for the best control structure to be used in future scale enlargement. The major drawbacks encountered in this kind of system were high interactivity among variables, a malfunction as a result of calculated variables out of the operational window, and modeling mismatch. Despite the robustness of the operational PI, the control actions of this strategy did not overcome the variable interactions. The DMC (dynamic matrix control) and the QDMC (quadratic dynamic matrix control) algorithms performed satisfactorily over the major drawbacks. Special attention was given to the latter algorithm due to its ability to hold the variables under constrained oscillations. However, the best results were found for the adaptive GPC (generalized predictive control) algorithm whose actions prevailed over the modeling mismatch due to the strong nonlinear behavior intrinsic to the process. The main goal of the present work is to describe a procedure that can be standardized for other types of dryers and different scales. This is especially the case for the adaptive GPC, whose control structure is independent of the dryer nature and scale and whose implementation does not require previous identification procedures (self-tuning) and/or structural changes.

An Alternative Formulation for One-Layer Real Time Structure for Control and Optimization Based on the Inverse of the Process Gain

Abstract In this paper a new formulation for one-layer real time structure for control and optimization is presented. This new formulation is based on a constrained Quadratic Dynamic Matrix Control (QDMC) and it is applied to an ideal binary distillation column. In this formulation, at each sampling time, the values of the outputs of the process are fed into the optimization-control structure, which supplies the new values of manipulated variables. A linear dynamic model of the process is combined to a stationary model and both models are used to perform an on-line search for the best operational conditions. This alternative formulation generates a convex problem, which can be solved with less sophisticated optimization algorithms. Linear and non-linear economical objective functions are considered. Due to the non-interaction feature between the optimization and control procedures in the one-layer structure, it is not observed any oscillation problems in control variables, even when non-linear economical objective functions are used.

Use of Fluid Dynamic Simulation to Improve the Design of Spouted Beds

The use of spouted beds in numerous chemical and pharmaceutical industrial processes and in the agricultural industry has become popular principally because they enable high rates of heat and mass transfer to take place between system phases. However, despite the advances achieved through research into spouted beds over the more than 50 years since their invention, it continues to be difficult to obtain detailed information regarding the hydrodynamics of this equipment. The constant movement of the particles and the geometric characteristics of the equipment are the principal factors complicating this evaluation. More specific information is still required about scaling up spouted beds and using data from half-column beds to infer data for full column beds. The half-column technique applied for hydrodynamic evaluation of spouted beds is very old. Nevertheless, many authors have stated that great care must be taken in their application to obtain experimental data for use in representing full-column spouted bed phenomena. The use of optical fiber sensors is currently one of the most commonly recommended techniques for this type of measurement. However, measuring the particle dynamics by inserting optical fiber sensors may produce inaccurate results, as calibration is extremely difficult and the sensors may cause perturbations within the bed. With regard to scaling up, larger spouted beds tend to be less stable and consequently harder to control and operate. This issue is difficult to study using experimental techniques because it relates directly to constructing beds on different scales. The flexibility of computational fluid dynamics, allied to the reliability of the simulated results that have already been proven by a range of studies, can contribute to this area. It enables the analysis of scaling up data in different configurations and scales and using fewer experimental modules, making it possible to conduct studies that remain difficult in the laboratory. With regard to the study of fluid movement, the most recent studies of fluid mechanics are still based on the same Navier-Stokes equations. Although they were proposed approximately 200 years ago, analytical solutions for the Navier-Stokes equations are known for just a few cases due to the non-linear nature of the partial differential equations (PDAs). There is still little knowledge of analytical solutions for this mathematical class, making it impossible to obtain a solution for arbitrary regions and general boundary conditions. These are the principal reasons why analytical evaluation of the movement of the fluids is very difficult. In light of this, treatments using experimental tests are