Process Control Modelling and Simulation of a Water Plants Storage Compartments

Abstract

A \u00a0water plant is one out \u00a0of numerous \u00a0examples of critical infrastructure \u00a0which include electric power systems, traffic control systems, manufacturing systems. Humans, domestic animals, industries, and to mention a few, rely so \u00a0much on these \u00a0critical infrastructures as they depend solely on \u00a0water plants services. However, \u00a0the \u00a0present \u00a0situation \u00a0is \u00a0such \u00a0that \u00a0water \u00a0plant \u00a0falls \u00a0short \u00a0of \u00a0its \u00a0use \u00a0due \u00a0to \u00a0breakthdown, underperformance and lack of proper management in place, especially in Nigeria. This situation has hindered effective process control of water plants, thereby making it impossible to account correctly for its production process \u00a0and \u00a0to \u00a0prevent \u00a0break \u00a0down \u00a0of \u00a0machinery. \u00a0In \u00a0this \u00a0paper, \u00a0we \u00a0formulated, \u00a0designed \u00a0and \u00a0evaluated \u00a0a model \u00a0that \u00a0offers \u00a0effective \u00a0process \u00a0control \u00a0during \u00a0production \u00a0by \u00a0a \u00a0water \u00a0plant. \u00a0By \u00a0means \u00a0of \u00a0a \u00a0quantitative research approach, the study provided \u00a0a full description of the flow paths \u00a0and compartments connected in a process plant. We extracted information about the tanks sizes, piped diameter, number of pumps and number of \u00a0tanks \u00a0from \u00a0the \u00a0operational \u00a0manual \u00a0booklet \u00a0of \u00a0the \u00a0water \u00a0plants \u00a0as \u00a0the \u00a0source \u00a0of \u00a0the \u00a0dataset. \u00a0A \u00a0prototype model \u00a0for \u00a0the \u00a0process \u00a0plant \u00a0was \u00a0specified \u00a0to \u00a0establish \u00a0the \u00a0system's \u00a0flow \u00a0parts \u00a0and \u00a0storage \u00a0compartments \u00a0of mass. Based on the extracted data, \u00a0we \u00a0formulated \u00a0mathematical \u00a0models to describe the system\u2019s behaviour. The \u00a0model \u00a0was simulated in Simulink MatLab \u00a0and used to investigate the effects of \u00a0varying the parameters of the plant, especially the restriction (R) against water flow in the connecting pipes, as it affects the capacity of the tanks. The results of the simulation show that varying any of the values of the model parameters affects the \u00a0water \u00a0levels \u00a0in \u00a0the \u00a0various \u00a0tanks. \u00a0Also, \u00a0the \u00a0results \u00a0suggest \u00a0a \u00a0safe \u00a0process \u00a0parameter \u00a0during \u00a0processing. Notably, the result reveals that reducing the diameter of a pipe 1 from 300mm to 25mm or below will lead to water overflow in tanks, which will result in water wastage, machine and environmental damages. Thus, the research provided an effortless way of determining the \u00a0various pipes sizes, sizes of tanks to be used and the expected output of the production process of the plant, before going into its physical production.