DSC: software tool for simulation-based design of control strategies applied to wastewater treatment plants

Abstract

This paper presents a computer tool called DSC (Simulation based Controllers Design) that enables an easy design of control systems and strategies applied to wastewater treatment plants. Although the control systems are developed and evaluated by simulation, this tool aims to facilitate the direct implementation of the designed control system to the PC of the full-scale WWTP (wastewater treatment plants). The designed control system can be programmed in a dedicated control application and can be connected to either the simulation software or the SCADA of the plant. To this end, the developed DSC incorporates an OPC server (OLE for process control) which facilitates an open-standard communication protocol for different industrial process applications. The potential capabilities of the DSC tool are illustrated through the example of a full-scale application. An aeration control system applied to a nutrient removing WWTP was designed, tuned and evaluated with the DSC tool before its implementation in the full scale plant. The control parameters obtained by simulation were suitable for the full scale plant with only few modifications to improve the control performance. With the DSC tool, the control systems performance can be easily evaluated by simulation. Once developed and tuned by simulation, the control systems can be directly applied to the full-scale WWTP.

Estudio Del Proceso De Nitrificación Y Desnitrificación Vía Nitrito Para El Tratamiento Biológico De Corrientes De Agua Residual Con Alta Carga De Nitrógeno Amoniacal

“…La calibración y validación del sistema de control puede resultar menos complicada cuando se emplean herramientas informáticas, tales como la aplicación informática Diseño de Sistemas de Control -DSC (Ruano et al, 2011), para diseñar el controlador y ajustar por simulación los parámetros de partida. El uso de este tipo de herramientas resulta también muy útil para la validación previa del funcionamiento del sistema de control antes de su implementación en la EDAR.…”