Manipal University

Department of Chemical Engineering

CHEMICAL REACTION ENGINEERING LAB

IV YEAR, 7th SEMESTER, 2020

EXPERIMENT #3
To study the dynamic response of two tank interacting system in series subjected to a step

INSTRUCTOR:
Dr. Anees Khan

MEMBER: Madhumita Kumar

Experiment carried on: March 23th 2021

Report submitted on: April 1st 2021

PRELAB (10) _______

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (10) _______
INTRODUCTION/OBJECTIVES/SCOPE/PROCEDURE (30) _______
RESULTS & DISCUSSION (30) _______
CONCLUSIONS (5) _______
REFERENCES (5) _______
APPENDIX
a) Original data, sample calculations, other information (5) _______
GENERAL COMPLETENESS
a) Conciseness and neatness (5) _______
TOTAL (100) ______
1. Executive Summary

The main objective of this experiment is to study the dynamic response of a two tank
interacting system when it is subjected to a step change. The system was allowed to reach
the steady state and then the response of the height was recorded with respect to the time
after the step change was introduced. A graph was plotted between the deviation height vs
time showing the nature of the step change. Various parameters llike resistance and time
constant was calculated. The area of both tanks, tank 1 and tank 2 are the same. In the case
of step change, change of 10 LPH was introduced. The resistance of tank 1 is 43200 s/m 2 and
the resistance of tank 2 is 284800 s/m2. The valye of the time constant increases as the
resistance also increases. The deviation height is proportional to the resistance. The
transport lag increases, as we increase the number of tanks in series. For an interacting
system, the flow of resistance through tank 2 depends on the height of tank 1 and tank 2.
3. Introduction
From a control stand point, through these experiments, we want to essentially find out how
a change in the input of the system affects the output of the system. But the relationship
between input variable and the output variable may not be direct. In other words, there can
be many intermediates between the input and output that also contribute to the
relationship between the input and the output. For a non interacting system, the input is
directly related to one or more intermediate variables in perfect succession until it reaches
the output variable. For an interacting system, although there are intermediate variables
present, there is some variable in the beginning that is a function of a variable the comes
afterwards.

The system that we are studying in this experiment is a first order interacting system in
series subjected to a step forcing function. A forcing function is a load disturbance that
affects the process and causes it to deviate from steady state. A first order system is a
system whose dynamic behavior is described by a first order differential equation. It is a
system whose input-output relationship is a first order differential equation. A first order
differential equation has a first order derivative but no derivative higher than first order.
First order systems have single storage elements. In general, the order of the input output
differential equation will be same as the number of independent energy storage elements of
the systems. First order systems are very important. Many practical systems are first order
systems such as a mass damper system or a mass heating system.

A transfer function is used to represent the relationship between the output signal of a
control system and the input signal of the control system for all input values. It is
mathematically defined as the ratio of the Laplace transform of the output variable to the
Laplace transport of the input variable assuming all initial conditions to be zero

Figure 1 shows a two tank liquid interacting system. To obtain the transfer function in this
sort of system, we start by writing the mass balances on each of the two tanks.
 Figure 1 two tank liquid interacting system

The mass balance for tank 1 is:

dh1
q−q 1= A1 (Eqn 1)
dt

The mass balance for tank 2 is:

dh 2
q 1−q 2=A 2 (Eqn 2)
dt

The flow head relationship for the resistance of tank 1 R1 is:

h1−h2
q 1= (Eqn 3)
R1

The flow head relationship for the resistance of tank 2 1 R2 is:

h2
q 2= (Eqn 4)
R2

At steady state equation 1 and equation 2 can be written as:

q s−q1 s=0 (Eqn 5)

q 1 s−q 2 s=0 (Eqn 6)

The deviation variables for this system are:

Q=q−q sQ1=q1−q 1 sQ2=q2−q 2 s H 1=h 1−h1 s H 2=h2−h12 s

Next, we need to subtract equation 5 from equation 1 and also subtract equation 6 from
equation 2 and introduce the deviation variables into the equations. After doing this, we
get:
d H1 dH 2
Tank 1 :Q−Q1= A 1 (Eqn 7¿ Tank 2 :Q−Q 2= A 2 (Eqn 8)
dt dt
The flow head relationship in terms of deviation variables is given by:
H 1−H 2
Tank 1 :Q 1= (Eqn 9)
R1

H2
Tank 2 :Q2= (Eqn 10)
R1

Taking the Laplace transform of equation 7,8,9 and 10, we get:

Tank 1 :Q ( s )+Q1 ( s )= A 1 s H 1 ( s ) (Eqn 11)

Tank 2 :Q 1 ( s ) +Q2 ( s )= A 2 s H 2 (s) (Eqn 12)

Tank 1 : R1 Q1 ( s )=H 1 ( s )−H 2 (s) (Eqn 13)

Tank 2 : R1 Q1 ( s )=H 2 (s) (Eqn 14)

Combining the above equations, we get the desired transfer function of the system:

H 2 (s) R2
= 2 (Eqn 15)
Q(s) τ 1 τ 2 s + ( τ 1 +τ 2 + A 1 R2 ) s +1

Where,

τ 1 =A 1 R 1τ 2=A 2 R 2

The next step in this derivation is to take the inverse Laplace of the transfer function in
order to create the model equation to graph.
The inverse Laplace for equation 15 is:

[
H 2 ( t )=R 2 M 1+
τ 1 −t / τ
τ 1+ τ 2
e 1
τ
+ 2 e−t /τ
τ 1 +τ 2
2

] (Eqn 16)

Where,
M = amplitude of step change

4. Objective

To study the dynamic response of a two tank liquid interacting system subjected to a step
forcing function.
5. Experimental set up

Figure 2 Experimental set up

There is a three transparent tank set up in this system. We will be using two interacting
tanks in the experiment. There are valves, a pump and a rotameter also present in the set
up. The valves in the set up are used as resistance to the flwow of water. In this experiment,
Tank 3 in the diagram will be Tank 1 in the system while Tank 2 will be Tank 2. The sump
tank will be filled with water initially. The initial flow rate will be set using the rotameter.
The pump will be responsible for pumping the water into Tank 3. After reaching Tank 3,
there will be a connection between Tank 2 and Tank 3, water will flow from Tank 3 to Tank 2
and then back to the sump tank.

6. Apparatus required
- Tank set up
- Stop watch
- Pen and paper
- Water

7. Experimental procedure
1. Fill the sump tank with water.
 2. Establish connection between Tank 2 and Tank 3, between rotameter and Tank 3
and remove connection between rotameter and Tank 1.
3. Set initial flow rate using rotameter (10 LPH).
4. Water will start flowing into Tank 3 and then eventually into Tank 2. Wait until
steady state is reached. Steady state is reached when level of water (height of water)
is not increasing in both the tanks
5. Note down the height of water in both the tanks, this is the steady state height in
Tank 1 and Tank 2.
6. Increase the flow rate using the rotameter to final flow rate (20 LPH).
7. Start stop watch.
8. Take reading of the height of water of both the tanks every 10 seconds.
9. After experiment is completed, empty the sump tank and close all the valvesx

8. Results and Discussion

H vs T: Step change for two tank interacting system

90

80

70

60

50 H2 vs t
H (cm)

Logarithmic (H2 vs t)
40 H1 vs t

30

20

10

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200

Time (t) (s)

Figure 3 H vs T for two tank interacting system

 Tank Area (A, m^2) Resistance (R, s/m^2) Time constant (τ , seconds)
1 0.00665 43200 287.28
2 0.00665 284800 1893.92

A graph has been plotted between the height deviation variable and time. This graph is
displayed as figure 3. The initial steady state flow rate that was introduced is 10 LPH. The
final flow rate of the system was 20 LPH. There is a 10 LPH change in the input of the
system. It took the system 780 seconds to reach the final flow rate. The final change in
height achieved by tank 1 after reaching the new steady state was 81 cm and the final
change in height achieved by tank 2 after reaching the new steady state was 69 cm. The
height deviation vs time graph was plotted and it is observed that an S shaped graph is
formed that plateaus towards the end when the new steady state is reached. This is the
typical curve obtained in two tank interacting systems. The response changes slowly once
the step change is implemented. This sluggish nature and time lag is common in first order
systems in series. The transportation lag is the difference in the response time between the
two tanks. The resistances for both the tanks and the time constants have also been
calculated. These values are present in Table 1.

It can be seen through the graph that the value of τ increases from tank 1 to tank 2 and the
value of resistance also increases from tank 1 to tank 2. The resistance is hence showing a
positive correlation to the time constant. For the interacting system, the flow of water
through the resistance depends on the height of the liquid in tank 1 as well as tank 2. This
shows that the liquid levels in tank 1 and 2 are inter dependent in the interacting system.
The time constant values of tank 1 are higher than that of tank 2 because the resistance of
tank 1 had to be greater than the resistance of tank 2 in order to reach steady state. In step
change, the transport lag also increases when we increase the number of tanks in series
because the response changes slowly. The liquid level in tank 1 is also always higher than
the liquid level of tank 2, so that steady state is able to be reached.
The transfer function for this system is as follows:
H 2 (s) R2 284800
= =
Q(s) τ 1 τ 2 s + ( τ 1 +τ 2 + A 1 R2 ) s +1 (287.28)(1893.92)s + ( 287.29+1893.92+(0.00665)(1893.92) ) s+1
2 2
The inverse Laplace transform of the transfer is taken in order to formulate the model
equation and plot it.

H 2 ( t )=R 2 M 1+
[ τ 1 −t /τ
τ 2−τ 1
e + 1
τ 2 −t / τ
τ1+ τ2
e
]
=(284800)(10) 1+
2

[
287.28
1893.92−287.28
e
−t /287.28
+
1893.92
1893.92−287.28
e
−t

The graph of the model equation is displayed in figure 2.

H2 vs T
12
10
8
H2 (cm)

6 H2 vs T
4
2
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
time (seconds)

Figure 4: H2 vs T model equation

9. Conclusion

The experiment was conducted successfully. The readings were noted and the graph
between the height deviation and time was plotted for both the tanks. The resistance and
time constant was also calculated for both the tanks. The transfer function was formulated
as well. It is shown that the time constant and resistance is higher for tank 1 than it is for
tank 2. The model equation was formulated and the graph was plotted.

10. References
Coughanowr, Donald R., and Lowell B. Koppel. Process Systems Analysis and Control.
McGraw-Hill, 1991.

11. Appendix A
Time h1 h2 H12 H23 Q
sec cm cm cm cm lph
0 46 37 0 0 10
10 49 37 3 0 10
 20 54 40 8 3 10
30 58 41 12 4 10
40 59 42 13 5 10
50 62 46 16 9 10
60 66 47 20 10 10
70 68 50 22 13 10
80 70 52 24 15 10
90 74 54 28 17 10
100 76 56 30 19 10
110 78 58 32 21 10
120 80 60 34 23 10
130 82 62 36 25 10
140 84 64 38 27 10
150 86 66 40 29 10
160 88 68 42 31 10
170 90 70 44 33 10
180 92 72 46 35 10
190 92 74 46 37 10
200 93 74 47 37 10
210 94 76 48 39 10
220 95 76 49 39 10
230 96 78 50 41 10
240 98 78 52 41 10
250 98 79 52 42 10
260 98 80 52 43 10
270 100 81 54 44 10
280 100 82 54 45 10
290 101 82 55 45 10
300 102 82 56 45 10
310 102 84 56 47 10
320 104 86 58 49 10
330 104 86 58 49 10
340 105 86 59 49 10
350 105 87 59 50 10
360 106 88 60 51 10
370 107 88 61 51 10
380 108 89 62 52 10
390 108 90 62 53 10
400 110 90 64 53 10
410 110 90 64 53 10
420 110 92 64 55 10
430 110 92 64 55 10
440 112 92 66 55 10
450 112 92 66 55 10
460 112 93 66 56 10
470 112 94 66 57 10
480 112 94 66 57 10
490 114 94 68 57 10
 500 115 95 69 58 10
510 116 96 70 59 10
520 116 96 70 59 10
530 116 96 70 59 10
540 117 96 71 59 10
550 117 97 71 60 10
560 118 98 72 61 10
570 118 98 72 61 10
580 118 98 72 61 10
590 119 99 73 62 10
600 120 100 74 63 10
610 120 100 74 63 10
620 120 100 74 63 10
630 120 100 74 63 10
640 120 101 74 64 10
650 121 102 75 65 10
660 122 102 76 65 10
670 122 102 76 65 10
680 122 102 76 65 10
690 123 102 77 65 10
700 123 102 77 65 10
710 124 103 78 66 10
720 124 104 78 67 10
730 124 104 78 67 10
740 124 104 78 67 10
750 124 104 78 67 10
760 125 105 79 68 10
770 125 105 79 68 10
780 126 106 80 69 10
790 126 106 80 69 10
800 126 106 80 69 10
810 126 106 80 69 10
820 126 106 80 69 10
830 126 106 80 69 10
840 127 106 81 69 10
850 127 106 81 69 10
860 127 106 81 69 10
870 127 106 81 69 10
880 127 106 81 69 10
890 127 106 81 69 10
900 127 106 81 69 10
910 127 106 81 69 10
920 127 106 81 69 10
930 127 106 81 69 10
940 127 106 81 69 10
950 127 106 81 69 10
960 127 106 81 69 10
Figure 5 Raw data
Sample Calculation:

Initial steady state height (for 46 Cm

tank 1)
Initial steady state height (for 37 Cm
tank 2)
Final height (for tank 1) 127 Cm
Final height (for tank 2) 106 Cm
H1 127-46=81 Cm
H2 106-37=69 Cm
Q 20-10=10 LPH
R1 (((81-69)(10^-2))/(10*10^- s/m^2
3))*3600=43200
R2 (((69)(10^-2))/(10*10^- s/m^2
3))*3600=248400
A1,A2 −3 2 m^2
π∗( 92∗10 )
=0.00665
4
τ1 0.00665*43200=287.28 s
τ2 0.00665*284800=1893.92 s