An Internal Model Based-Sliding Mode Control for Open-Loop Unstable Chemical Processes with Time Delay

This paper presents a dynamic sliding mode control (DSMC) for open-loop unstable chemical or biochemical processes with a time delay. The controller is based on the sliding mode and internal model control concepts. The proposed DSMC has an internal P/PD controller to provide systems with disturbance rejection. An identification method approximates the open-loop unstable nonlinear process to a first-order delayed unstable process (FODUP). The reduced-order model(FODUP) is used to synthesize the new controller. The performance of the controller is stable and satisfactory despite nonlinearities in the operating conditions due to set-point and process disturbance changes. In addition, the performance analysis of the control schemes was evaluated based on various indices and transient characteristics, including the integral of squared error (ISE), the total variation of control effort (TVu), the maximum overshoot (Mp), and the settling time (ts). Finally, the process output and the control action for all controllers are compared using the nonlinear process as the real plant.