Robust control of a three phase separator: an LMI approach

  • João Bernardo Aranha Ribeiro Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina
  • José Dolores Vergara Dietrich Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná, Toledo, Paraná
  • Julio Elias Normey Rico Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina
  • Daniel Ferreira Coutinho Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina
Keywords: Three Phase Separators, Slug Handling, Robust Control, Process Control

Abstract

This paper presents an H_infinity approach for a three-phase gravity separator. A switching strategy is applied to chose between two controllers: one to damp oscillatory disturbances in the inflow of the separator, and one for better set-point tracking. The controller selection relies on the inflow disturbance measurement, which is unpractical or unreliable. Therefore, an H2 observer is designed to estimate the (multiphasic) inflow which in turn is utilized as the controller switching signal. The performance of the proposed strategy is compared to a traditional PI Zone controller normally used in industry. The results demonstrated that the proposed controller outperforms the performance achieved by classical PI Zone controllers allowing a good trade-off between slug attenuation and set-point tracking.
Published
2021-10-20
Section
Articles