Dynamic optimisation of an industrial web process

Abstract

An industrial web process has been studied and it is shown that theunderlying physics of such processes governs by the Navier-Stokes partialdifferential equations with moving boundary conditions, which in turn have tobe determined by the solution of the thermodynamics equations. Thedevelopment of a two-dimensional continuous-discrete model structurebased on this study is presented. Other models are constructed based onthis model for better identification and optimisation purposes. Theparameters of the proposed models are then estimated using real dataobtained from the identification experiments with the process plant. Varioussimulation tests for validation are accompanied with the design, developmentand real-time industrial implementation of an optimal controller for dynamicoptimisation of this web process. It is shown that in comparison with thetraditional controller, the new controller resulted in a better performance, animprovement in film quality and saving in raw materials. This demonstrates theefficiency and validation of the developed models.