Abstract:

The teaching activities of process dynamics are fundamental for the training and development of chemical engineering graduates, since one of the professional profiles to which they have access with this degree is focused on taking charge at different levels of the automation of industrial processes, both in their design and in their operation. Determining the evolution of the variables in any industrial process is a critical element, and the knowledge in aspects such as the Laplace transform, domains of time and frequency-response are essential for the suitable development of the chemical engineer. Accordingly, most engineering degrees include an Instrumentation and Control process subject in their study programs which is usually cursed in the third year onwards. However, the special dynamic characteristics of the processes that chemical engineering graduates have to face accentuate the complexity of the methodologies and teaching of these subjects. Parameter such as the time constants are in the range of second to days, i.e., several orders of magnitude different from those typically faced by other engineering professionals (e.g., electrical engineers, telecommunications engineers, computer engineers where the time constants are in an order below microseconds). All this means that the approach to teaching frequency response techniques has to be very different depending on the particular degree, fact which is not always taken into account in the study program. In this contribution the methodology that has been successful followed at the Chemical Engineering Department of the University of Castilla-La Mancha for more than twenty years is described. This procedure is based on the use of simulations tools developed in the Visual Basic Excel (VBA) environment. Through this tool, the student acquires the necessary skills to build a simulator in a practical way from which the frequency response of a system is evaluated in a time considerably less compared with other traditional methodologies (theoretical content). This allows the student to have a clear understanding not only of the main concepts of frequency response, but also to be able to perform a frequency response study of any system.

Keywords:

Education, Chemical Engineering, Control processes, Frequency-Response, Visual Basic Excel.