International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 8887)

Volume 8 No.6, October 2010

PID Control of Heat Exchanger System

Yuvraj Bhushan Khare

Yaduvir Singh

Department of Electrical & Instrumentation Engineering

Thapar University, Patiala, 147001, Punjab, India

ABSTRACT
Heat exchanger system is widely used in chemical plants
because it can sustain wide range of temperature and
pressure. The main purpose of a heat exchanger system is to
transfer heat from a hot fluid to a cooler fluid, so
temperature control of outlet fluid is of prime importance.
To control the temperature of outlet fluid of the heat
exchanger system a conventional PID controller can be
used. Due to inherent disadvantages of conventional control
techniques, model based control technique is employed and
an internal model based PID controller is developed to
control the temperature of outlet fluid of the heat exchanger
system. The designed controller regulates the temperature
of the outgoing fluid to a desired set point in the shortest
possible time irrespective of load and process disturbances,
equipment saturation and nonlinearity. The developed
internal model based PID controller has demonstrated 84%
improvement in the overshoot and 44.6% improvement in
settling time as compared to the classical controller.

Keywords
Feed-forward controller, internal model based PID
controller, PID Controller and heat exchanger.

1. INTRODUCTION
In practice, all chemical process involves production or
absorption of energy in the form of heat. Heat exchanger is
commonly used in a chemical process to transfer heat from
the hot fluid through a solid wall to a cooler fluid. There are
different types of heat exchanger used in the industry but
most of the industry used heat exchanger system [11]. Heat
exchangers are probably the most common types of heat
exchanger applicable for wide range of operating
temperature and pressure. They have larger ration of heat
transfer surface to volume than double pipe heat
exchangers, and they are easy to manufacture in large
variety of sizes and configuration. They can operate at high
pressure, and their construction facilitates disassembly for
periodic maintenance and cleaning. Heat exchanger find
widespread used in refrigeration, power generation, heating
and air-conditioning, chemical process, manufacturing, and
medical application. A heat exchanger in an extension of
the double pipe configuration. Instead of single pipe within
a larger pipe, a heat exchanger consists of bundles of pipes
or tubes enclosed within a cylindrical shell. In the heat
exchanger one fluid flows through a tubes and a second
fluid flows through within the space between the tubes and
the shell.
This paper reports a work that considers a heat exchanger
and builds a single-input single outputs model of the system
with the help of experimental data available. The outlet
temperature of the heat exchanger system has to be kept at a
desired set point according to a process requirement. Firstly
a classical PID controller is implemented in a feedback

control loop so as to achieve the control objectives. PID

controllers exhibits high overshoot which is undesirable. To
reduce the overshoot and optimize the control performance,
a feed forward controller is used along with a feedback
controller. The combined effect of feedback and feed
forward control schemes gives a much better result than the
feedback PID controller.

2. HEAT EXCHANGER SYSTEM

A typical interacting chemical process for heating consists
of a chemical reactors and a heat exchanger system. The
process fluid which is the output of the chemical reactor is
stored in the storage tank. The storage tank supplies the
fluid to the heat exchanger system. The heat exchanger
heats up the fluid to a desired set point using super heated
steam at 180 C supplied from the boiler. The storage tank
supplies the process fluid to a heat exchanger system using
a pump and a non returning valve. The super heated steam
comes from the boiler and flows through the tubes, whereas
the process fluids flow through the shells of the heat
exchanger system. After the steams heat up the process
fluid, the condensed steam at 100 C goes out of the heat
exchanger system. There is also a path of non condensed
steam to go out of the shell and heat exchanger system in
order to avoid the blocking of the heat exchanger.
Different assumptions have been considered in this research
paper. The first assumption is that the inflow and the
outflow rate of fluid are same, so that the fluid level is
maintained constant in the heat exchanger. The second
assumption is the heat storage capacity of the insulating
wall is negligible. In this feedback process control loop, the
controller is reverse acting, the valve used is of air to open
(fail-close) type. A thermocouple is used as the sensing
element, which is implemented in the feedback path of the
control architecture. The temperature of the outgoing fluid
is measured by the thermocouple and the output of the
thermocouple (voltage) is sent to the transmitter unit, which
eventually converts the thermocouple output to a
standardized signal in the range of 4-20 ma. This output of
the transmitter unit is given to the controller unit. The
controller implements the control algorithm, compares the
output with the set point and then gives necessary
command to the final control element via the actuator unit.
The actuator unit is a current to pressure converter and the
final control unit is an air to open (fail-close) valve. The
actuator unit takes the controller output in the range of 4-20
ma and converts it in to a standardized pressure signal, i.e.
in the range of 3-15 psig. The valve actuates according to
the controller decisions. Figure 1 show the basic feedback
control scheme implemented in a heat exchanger system.
There can be two types of disturbances in this process, one
is the flow variation of input fluid and the second is the
temperature variation of input fluid. But in practice the flow
variation of input fluid is a more prominent disturbance

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International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 8887)

Volume 8 No.6, October 2010
than the temperature variation in input fluid. So, in feed
forward control loop, the input fluid flow is measured and
the disturbance in the flow is controlled using a feed
forward controller. The output of the feedback and the feed
forward controller is added and the resultant output is given
to the control valve. With the addition of feed forward
controller the control performance is further optimized.

0.16
10 s 1

Transfer function of thermocouple

To control the exit temperature of the heat exchanger

system a classical feedback controller is used. The PID
control algorithm remains the most popular approach for
industrial process control despite continual advances in
control theory. This is not only due to the simple structure
which is conceptually easy to understand and, which makes
manual tuning possible, but also to the fact that the
algorithm provides adequate performance in the vast
majority of applications.

The characteristic equation (1+G(s) H(s) =0) in this

case is obtained as below.
3

900 s +420 s +43s+0.798 k c +1=0

(1)

Routh stability criterion gives

(2)

k c as 23.8

Auxiliary Equation 420 s +0.798 k c +1=0

=0.218 and T=28.79
PID controller in continuous time is given as

u (t ) kc e(t )

e(t )dt

i 0

de(t )
dt

(3)

The transfer function of PID controller is

Figure 1: Heat Exchanger System Control Scheme

3. MATHEMATICAL MODELLING
Figure 2 shows conventional control block diagram
consisting of process, controller, actuator, final control
element, sensor, set point and different kind of process
disturbances.
From the experimental data, the transfer functions and
gains are obtained as below:

Transfer function of process

Gain of valve
Transfer function of valve

50e sTd
30 s 1
0.13

.13
.
3s 1

u ( s)
e(s)

kc

G pid ( s)

u ( s)
e( s )

kc

G pid ( s)

u ( s)
e( s )

kc

G pid ( s)

i d

s2

i
i

s 1

(4)

s 1
is

s 1
1 fs

s 1
is

s 1
(6)
1
fs

(5)

Most of the PID tuning rules developed in the last sixty

years use frequency-response methods [6,8]. Examples
include, ZieglerNichols rule, symmetric optimum rule,
ZieglerNichols complementary rule, some-overshoot rule,
no-overshoot rule, refined ZieglerNichols rule, integral of
squared time weighted error rule, and integral of time
absolute error rule [7]. These methods are straightforward
to apply since they provide simple tuning formulae to
determine the PID controller parameters. However, since
only a small amount of information on the dynamic
behaviour of the process is used, in many situations they do
not provide good enough tuning or produce a satisfactory
closed-loop response. In practice, the ZieglerNichols rule
often leads to a rather oscillatory response to set point
changes. From its invention in 1940s Zeigler-Nichols
tuning rule is used extensively in industries to tune the PID
controllers.
According to Zeigler-Nichols frequency response tuning
criteria K p 0.6Kc, i 0.5T and d 0.125T

Figure 2: Block diagram for feedback control of heat

exchanger system.
Gain of I/P converter
0.75
Transfer function of disturbance variables (flow and
temperature disturbance respectively)

1
3
,
30s 1 30s 1

For the PID controller in the heat exchanger, the values of

tuning parameters obtained are Kp =14.28, i =14.395,
d=3.59 and P= 23.8, I= 1.65, D=85.442
Usually, initial design values of PID controller obtained by
all means needs to be adjusted repeatedly through computer
simulations until the closed loop system performs or
compromises as desired. In order to have a good closedloop time response, the following performance functions
are considered during the design of a PID controller.

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International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 8887)

Volume 8 No.6, October 2010

J ( K p , Ki , K d )

(r (t ) y(t ))2dt

(7)

t | (r (t ) y(t )) | dt

(8)

J ( K p , Ki , K d )
0

Thus, the optimal PID controller design is stated as min J

(K p , K i , Kd )
The disturbance input introduces error in the system
performance. In several systems the disturbance can be
predicted and its effect can be eliminated with the help of
feed forward controller before it can change the output of
the System.
In feedback control scheme the sensor detects the process
output and gives the error to the controller, which in turn
takes appropriate controlling action. But till the controlling
action reaches the process, the output has been changed. So
a feed forward controller along with the feedback controller
has been implemented. A feed forward control estimates the
error and changes the manipulating variable before the
disturbance can affect the output. To further minimize the
overshoot a feed-forward controller is introduced in the
forward path of the process along with the feedback
controller. The combined effect of feedback and feedforward controller reduces the overshoot value. Figure 4
shows the transfer function representation of system with
feedback and feed-forward controller.

Figure 4: Feed forward and feedback control block diagram

of heat exchanger system.

INTERNAL MODEL BASED PID

CONTROLLER
The most common industrial controller is PID controller
and internal model control scheme shown in figure 7 can be
used to design a standard feedback PID controller. The
standard feedback controller is a function of the internal
model and internal model controller Q(s). The transfer
function of feedback controller equivalent to internal model
controller is shown in eq. (12).

Gc (s)

Q( s )
.
1 G p ( s)Q( s)

(12)

Substituting the values in eq. (12) the transfer function of

the feedback controller based on internal model controller
is obtained as shown in eq. (13).

Gc ( s )

90 s 2 33s 1
.
5( 2 s 2 2 s )

(13)

Equating the terms of eq. (5) and eq. (13), the values of PID
parameters are obtained.
PID controller for improved disturbance rejection can be
achieved by changing the internal model controller filter.
For improved disturbance rejection the filter is in the form
of

F(s) =

Step response of heat exchanger system with feedback

controller.

G p (s)

5e
90s

, Gd ( s)

1
30s 1

(9)

The transfer function of the feed-forward controller is

Gcf ( s )

Gcf ( s)

(14)

Here is selected to achieve good disturbance rejection. It

is selected to cancel slow disturbance time constant.
Several methods of tuning of internal model controller and
efficient calculation of filter parameter have been proposed
in literature [1].

4. SIMULATION AND TESTING

sT

33s 1

s 1
( s 1) n

Gd ( s )
G p ( s)

18s 2 6.6s 0.2

30s 1 s 1

The simulations for the different control mechanism

discussed above were carried out in Simulink and the
simulation results have been obtained. Figure 5 represents
the Simulink modelling of the heat exchanger system with
PID as a feedback controller.

(10)

(11)

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International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 8887)

Volume 8 No.6, October 2010

Step response of heat exchanger system

with feedback controller.

Figure 5: Simulink model of heat exchanger system with

feedback PID controller.
As shown in figure 5 for auto-tuning of PID controller, a
relay block is connected in parallel with the PID controller
with the help of a manual switch. When the auto-tune
function is required, the manual switch is set to the relay
block. The relay block represents a nonlinear behaviour. In
auto-tune mode, the closed loop system oscillates and the
manipulated variable action is ON-OFF. From the auto-tune
mode, two parameters are obtained. These parameters are
ultimate gain and ultimate frequency. Ultimate gain and
ultimate frequency are given as

Kcu

Ultimate gain
(15)
Ultimate frequency

Figure 7 shows the Simulink model of heat exchanger

system with both feedback and feed-forward controller. The
advantage of feed-forward control strategy is that a
disturbance variable is measured and a manipulated
variable is changed before the output is affected. But the
main disadvantage of this kind of control strategy is
sensitivity to uncertainty. If the inlet flow rate is not
perfectly measured or the steam input cant be manipulated
perfectly, then the outlet temperature of heat exchanger will
not be perfectly controlled. With any small disturbances the
output temperature cant be controlled in an effective
manner.

4h
a
2
p

(16)

Here P is the period between the successive peaks a is the

amplitude of process output
h is the height of controller output
The behaviour obtained from auto tuning mode is very
similar to the behaviour obtained from Zeigler- Nichols
closed loop cycling method.

Figure 7: Simulink model of heat exchanger system with

feedback and feed forward controller.
To implement a feed-forward control strategy prior
knowledge of the process disturbances and mathematical
model of the process must be known to the process
engineer.
Figure 8 shows the step response of the heat exchanger
system with feedback and feed forward controller. The
combined effect of feedback and feed forward controller
reduces the overshoot and also decreases the settling time
by 21%.

Figure 6 shows the step response of the heat exchanger

system with PID controller with and without transportation
delay.

Figure 8: Step response of heat exchanger system with

feedback and feed forward controller.
Figure 9 shows the Simulink model of heat exchanger
system with internal model based PID controller. Internal
model based PID controller carries a significant advantage
over conventional PID controller as there is only one tuning
parameter where as there are three tuning parameter in

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International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 8887)

Volume 8 No.6, October 2010
conventional PID controller.
Figure 10 shows the step response of heat exchanger
system when an internal model based PID controller is used
to control the controlling variable. The maximum overshoot
is only 5% and the controller meets both steady state and
transient state criteria.

Figure 9: Simulink model of internal model based PID

controller.

From the above observations it is clear that in conventional

PID controller in feedback loop the heat exchanger
produces an overshoot is 38.38%. To compensate this kind
of high overshoot a feed forward controller in conjunction
with the conventional PID in feedback loop is
implemented. By implementing this method the system
overshoot was reduced to 30%, an improvement of 21%.
Though the overshoot has some what decreased, it can be
further decreased by implementing internal model based
controller and internal model based PID controller. By
implementing internal model based PID controller the
overshoot reduces to 5% respectively. In feedback
controller the settling time was 115.2 sec where as in feed
forward plus feedback controller the settling time decreases
to 91.34 sec, an improvement of 20.7%. By implementing
internal model based PID controller the settling time
decreases by 63.8 sec. From these observations it is clear
that internal model based PID controller is a much better
option for control rather than conventional feedback and
feedback plus feed forward controller.

6. CONCLUSIONS

Figure 10: Step response of

controller.

internal model based PID

To evaluate the performance of the different controllers this

paper has considered two vital parameters of the step
response of the system. The first parameter is the maximum
overshoot and the second parameter is the settling time.

5. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

In the time domain, specifications for a control system
design involve certain requirements associated with the
time response of the system. The requirements are often
expressed in terms of the standard quantities on the rise
time, settling time, overshoot, peak time, and steady state
error of a step response. In all the four controllers these two
parameters are evaluated. A comparative study of their
performance has been in the table 1 below.

This paper takes a case study of heat exchanger system and

evaluates different methods to control the outlet fluid
temperature. Four different kinds of controllers are
designed to control the outlet temperature of fluid and the
performances of these controllers are evaluated by two
different methods. One of the methods for performance
evaluation is the time domain analysis of overshoot and
settling time and other method is calculation of
performance Indices. Firstly a classical PID controller is
designed to achieve the control objective. But due to the
unsatisfactory performance of the PID controller a feed
forward controller is designed and placed in the forward
path of the system. To further increase the efficiency of the
system the internal model based PID controller is designed
and implemented. The internal model based PID controller
gives satisfactory performance in both steady state and
transient state in time domain analysis. The performance
indices of all the controllers are also evaluated.
This paper takes the process model to be the same as the
process, which is practically impossible to achieve. So as a
further work we can implement direct model and inverse
model based controller and apply system identification as
well as neural networks concepts for estimation of process
model.

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Orlando Duran et.al, Neural Networks for Cost

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