Temperature control of a batch PMMA polymerization reactor using adaptive predictive control algorithm

An adaptive unified predictive control (UPC) algorithm is applied to a batch polymerization reactor for poly(methyl methancrylate) (PMMA) and the effects of controller parameters are investigated. Computational studies are performed for a batch polymerization system model developed in this study. A transfer function in parametric form is estimated by recursive least squares (RLS) method, and the UPC algorithm is implemented to control the reactor temperature on the basis of this transfer function. The adaptive unified predictive controller shows a better performance than the PID controller for tracking set point changes, especially in the latter part of reaction course when gel effect becomes significant. Various performance can be acquired by selecting adequate values for parameters of the adaptive unified predictive controller; in other words, the optimal set of parameters exists for a given set of reaction conditions and control objective.