Control System Simulators for Gas-Liquid Cylindrical Cyclone Separators

Abstract

The control system performance of gas liquid cylindrical cyclone (GLCC© ) separators can be considerably improved by adopting suitable control strategy and optimizing the design of the controller PID settings. Dynamic simulators have been developed in this study, based on Matlab/Simulink® software for evaluation of several different GLCC control philosophies for two-phase flow metering loop and bulk separation applications. Detailed analysis of the GLCC control system simulators indicates that for integrated liquid level and pressure control strategy, the level control loop compliments the operation of the pressure control loop, and vice versa. This strategy is ideal for reducing the pressure fluctuations in the GLCC. At severe slugging conditions, the integrated liquid level control is more desirable because of its faster response. However, there is no control of the GLCC pressure fluctuations. The results also show that the simulators are capable of representing the dynamic behavior of real physical systems. [S0195-0738(00)00504-5]