Empirical Models of the Purdue Furnace

Exercise 7.16
 

Consider the PCM furnace module of Appendix H. Assume that hydrocarbon temperature THC is the output variable and air flow rate FA is the input variable.
Do the following:

  1. Develop a FOPTD model from response data for a step change in FA at t = 10 min from 17.0 to 20.0 m3/min. Summarize your calculated model parameters in a table and briefly describe the method used to calculate them.
  2. Repeat (a) for a second-order plus time-delay (SOPTD) model.
  3. Plot the actual THC response and the two model responses for the FA step change of part (a).
  4. Are the two models reasonably accurate? Which model is superior? Justify your answer by considering the least square residuals for the one-step ahead prediction errors,