Document Type

Thesis

Date of Award

6-30-1961

Degree Name

Master of Science in Chemical Engineering - (M.S.)

Department

Chemical Engineering

First Advisor

Herbert Dengler

Second Advisor

C. L. Mantell

Third Advisor

Joseph Joffe

Abstract

Control of heat flux by condensate throttling was investigated theoretically by frequency response analysis and experimentally on a simulated reboiler control system.

Transfer functions were derived for each component and ware used to describe the response of the experi- mental system. Experimental controller settings were in reasonable agreement with the calculated results. However, general overall control was poor because of dead time and cyclic disturbances. Experiments showed that the process contained dead time in the order of three to seven times the ultimate period (0.5 - 1.0 minutes). Several sources of disturbances prevented an accurate evaluation of stability at low load conditions. The system was definitely stable at and above the design point and was marginal at the low points only because of the characteristics of the particular equipment: The method used for determining stability was the minimum area criteria which is based on the minimum deviation from the set point for the shortest time.

The investigation showed that a number of problems existed which would interfere with the use of condensate control in commercial applications.

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