A gain-scheduling PI controller for the reactor temperature of batch polymerization of methyl methacrylate

Temperature of polymerization has important role on the final product properties. A kinetic model is developed for the solution polymerization of methyl methacrylate and a transfer function is derived between the reactor temperature and power of the heaters. Then, sequential linearization is applied along a selected temperature trajectory. Consequently, a gain-scheduling PI controller is designed for the reactor temperature. The PI gain-scheduling controller is tuned according to an integral type tuning criteria to track the temperature trajectory. The result of controller performance is very good and the maximum error is less than one percent.