Predictive functional control for the temperature control of a chemical batch reactor

A predictive functional control (PFC) technique is applied to the temperature control of a pilot-plant batch reactor equipped with a mono-fluid heating/cooling system. A cascade control structure has been implemented according to the process sub-units reactor and heating/cooling system. Hereby differences in the sub-units dynamics are taken into consideration. PFC technique is described and its main differences with a standard model predictive control (MPC) technique are discussed. To evaluate its robustness, PFC has been applied to the temperature control of an exothermic chemical reaction. Experimental results show that PFC enables a precise tracking of the set-point temperature and that the PFC performances are mainly determined by its internal dynamic process model. Finally, results show the performance of the cascade control structure to handle different dynamics of the heating/cooling system

Dynamique d'un nuage de bulles homogène confiné

De nombreuses applications industrielles mettent en jeu des écoulements à bulles dans des échangeurs de masse et de chaleur ou des réacteurs. Les mouvements des bulles génèrent de l'agitation dans le liquide qui, en retour, influence la distribution spatiale des bulles et leur vitesse. La compréhension générique de ce problème de couplage inverse total est fondamentale mais délicate. Des travaux expérimentaux dédiés dans des configurations d'écoulements bien définies sont donc nécessaires pour atteindre cet objectif. Ce travail explore la dynamique d'un nuage de bulles en ascension à grand nombre de Reynolds dans une cellule de Hele-Shaw ([1]). Cette configuration apporte une contribution à une compréhension générale car elle permet d'étudier l'agitation générée par des bulles à grand nombre de Reynolds possédant des sillages instables tout en empêchant, par les effets de confinement, la production de turbulence. La comparaison avec la dynamique de nuages de bulles non confinés ([2]) est également éclairante. Par ailleurs, la détection des interfaces est considérablement facilitée par le confinement: une description complète et précise de la répartition spatiale et de la dynamique des bulles peut être ici obtenue directement par ombroscopie avec une seule caméra. De même, la mesure par PIV du champ de vitesse du liquide intégré dans l'épaisseur de la cellule permet de caractériser de manière pertinente la dynamique du liquide ([3]) (Fig.1-a). La dynamique des deux phases a ainsi été explorée pour des fractions volumiques de gaz α comprises entre 1% et 14% dans un régime où l'inertie est importante (Re≈500). Les bulles étudiées possèdent un sillage instable avec des lâchers tourbillonnaires réguliers et suivent une trajectoire ascendante oscillante tout en gardant une forme elliptique constante. Le frottement aux parois impose néanmoins une décroissance très forte des sillages ([4]). Les résultats montrent que l'on peut expliquer les statistiques associées au mouvement des bulles dans le nuage à partir de deux mécanismes élémentaires: (i) les oscillations induites par le sillage associées aux lâchers tourbillonnaires et (ii) la forte perturbation de vitesse localisée à l'arrière des bulles. Le mécanisme dominant dans la direction verticale est l'entrainement dans le sillage alors que celui qui régit la dynamique des bulles dans la direction horizontale est associé aux oscillations générées par les sillages dont l'intensité est indépendante de α (Fig.1-b). L'auto-dispersion des bulles a également été étudiée. Elle peut être caractérisée par des coefficients de dispersion qui évoluent linéairement avec α. En ce qui concerne l'agitation dans le liquide, comme en écoulement non confiné, les deux composantes des fluctuations de vitesse évoluent proportionnellement à αn avec ici αn=0.38 et 0.46 dans les directions horizontales et verticales respectivement. Le spectre spatial des fluctuations de vitesse évolue, sur une gamme de nombres d'ondes k bien définie, proportionnellement à k-³. Dans cette configuration où la turbulence ne peut se développer, cette évolution s'explique très clairement par la superposition linéaire de perturbations de vitesses aléatoires ([5]), il s'agit donc d'un effet statistique associé aux passages de perturbations convectées par les bulles

Dynamics of a high-Reynolds-number bubble rising within a thin gap

We report an experimental analysis of path and shape oscillations of an air bubble of diameter d rising in water at high Reynolds number in a vertical Hele-Shaw cell of width h. Liquid velocity perturbations induced by the relative movement have also been investigated to analyze the coupling between the bubble motion and the wake dynamics. The confinement ratio h/d is lower than unity so that the bubble is flattened in between the walls of the cell. As the bubble diameter is increased, the Archimedes and the Bond numbers increase within 10 6 Ar 6 104 and 6 × 10−3 6 Bo 6 140. Mean shapes become more and more elongated. They first evolve from in-plane circles to ellipses, then to complicated shapes without fore-aft symmetry and finally to semi-circular capped bubbles. The scaling law Re = 0.5Ar is however valid for a large range of Ar, indicating that the liquid films between the bubble and the walls do no contribute significantly to the drag force exerted on the bubble. The coupling between wake dynamics, bubble path and shape oscillations evolves and a succession of contrasted regimes of oscillations is observed. The rectilinear bubble motion becomes unstable from a critical value Ar1 through an Hopf bifurcation while the bubble shape is still circular. The amplitude of path oscillations first grows as Ar increases above Ar1 but then surprisingly decreases beyond a second Archimedes number Ar2. This phenomenon, observed for steady ellipsoidal shape with moderate eccentricity, can be explained by the rapid attenuation of bubble wakes caused by the confinement. Shape oscillations around a significantly elongated mean shape starts for Ar > Ar3. The wake structure progressively evolves due to changes in the bubble shape. After the break-up of the fore-aft symmetry, a fourth regime involving complicated shape oscillations is then observed for Ar > Ar4. Vortex shedding disappears and unsteady attached vortices coupled to shape oscillations trigger path oscillations of moderate amplitude. Path and shape oscillations finally decrease when Ar is further increased. For Ar > Ar5, capped bubbles followed by a steady wake rise on a straight path

Grippes aviaires en Afrique. Cibler la vigilance

En 2006, la détection du virus de l'influenza (grippe) aviaire H5N1 en Afrique suscite une grande inquiétude : le virus pourrait se propager à l'ensemble du continent, puis être réintroduit en Europe par les oiseaux migrateurs. Des programmes de surveillance épidémiologique et de renforcement des dispositifs nationaux sont mis en place, appuyés par des organismes internationaux. En parallèle, des programmes de recherche sont lancés pour décrire et comprendre les processus de transmission de ce virus en Afrique, et évaluer les risques. Parmi eux, le projet Gripavi vise à caractériser la circulation des virus d'influenza aviaire et de la maladie de Newcastle à la fois dans l'avifaune sauvage et la volaille domestique. Il montre que le continent africain n'est pas exempt de risques et que la vigilance doit rester de mise. En précisant les modes de persistance du virus en Afrique et en identifiant des situations à risque, il met au jour des pistes pour cibler les stratégies de surveillance et de contrôle, et en améliorer ainsi l'efficacité

Attenuation of the wake of a sphere in an intense incident turbulence with large length scales

We report an investigation of the wake of a sphere immersed in a uniform turbulent flow for sphere Reynolds numbers ranging from 100 to 1000. An original experimental setup has been designed to generate a uniform flow convecting an isotropic turbulence. At variance with previous works, the integral length scale of the turbulence is of the same order as the sphere diameter and the turbulence intensity is large. In consequence, the most intense turbulent eddies are capable of influencing the flow in the close vicinity of the sphere. Except in the attached region downstream of the sphere where the perturbation of the mean velocity is larger than the standard deviation of the incident turbulence, the flow is controlled by the incident turbulence. The distortion of the turbulence while the flow goes round the sphere leads to an increase in the longitudinal fluctuation and a decrease in the transversal one. The attenuation of the transversal fluctuations is still significant at 30 radii downstream of the sphere whereas the longitudinal fluctuations relax more rapidly toward the incident value. The more striking result however concerns the evolution of the mean velocity defect with the distance x from the sphere. It decays as x−2 and scales with the standard deviation of the incident turbulence instead of scaling with the mean incident velocity

Homogeneous swarm of high-Reynolds-number bubbles rising within a thin gap. Part 1: Bubble dynamics

The spatial distribution, the velocity statistics and the dispersion of the gas phase have been investigated experimentally in a homogeneous swarm of bubbles confined within a thin gap. In the considered flow regime, the bubbles rise on oscillatory paths while keeping a constant shape. They are followed by unstable wakes which are strongly attenuated due to wall friction. According to the direction that is considered, the physical mechanisms are totally different. In the vertical direction, the entrainment by the wake controls the bubble agitation, causing the velocity variance and the dispersion coefficient to increase almost linearly with the gas volume fraction. In the horizontal direction, path oscillations are the major cause of bubble agitation, leading to a constant velocity variance. The horizontal dispersion, which is lower than that in the vertical direction, is again observed to increase almost linearly with the gas volume fraction. It is however not directly due to regular path oscillations, which are unable to generate a neat deviation over a whole period, but results from bubble interactions which cause a loss of the bubble velocity time correlation

PIV with volume lighting in a narrow cell: An efficient method to measure large velocity fields of rapidly varying flows

In this work we test a methodology for PIV measurements when alargefield of view is required in planar confined geometries. Using a depth of fieldlarger than the channel width, we intend to measure the in-plane variations of the velocity of the fluid averaged through the width of the channel, and we examine in which operating conditions this becomes possible. Measurements of the flow through anarrow channel by PIV are challenging because of the strong velocity gradients that develop between the walls. In particular, all techniques that use small particles as tracers have to deal with the possible migration of the tracers in the direction perpendicular to the walls. Among the complex mechanisms for migration, we focus on the so called Segré–Silberberg effect which can lead to transverse migration of neutrally buoyant tracers of finite size. We report experimental PIV measurements in a Hele-Shaw cell of 1 mm gap, which have been carried out by using neutrally buoyant tracers of size around 10 μm. By considering steady flows, we have observed, in particular flow regimes, the effect of an accumulation of the tracers at a certain distance to the wall due to the so called Segré–Silberberg effect. The particle migration is expected to occur at any Reynolds numbers but the migration velocity depends on the Reynolds number. A significant migration therefore takes place each time the observation duration is large enough compared to the migration time. For a given observation duration, the tracers remain uniformly distributed at low Reynolds numbers whereas they all accumulate at the equilibrium position at large ones. When using volumelighting, the PIV algorithm provides the average velocity of the flow through the gap at low Reynolds number, while it leads to the velocity of the flow at the equilibrium position of the tracers at large Reynolds numbers. By considering unsteady flows, we have observed that the migration does not occur if the timescale of flow variation is short compared to the time required for the parabolic flow to develop across the gap. In this case, there is no transverse velocity gradient and the PIV algorithm provides the fluid velocity. Altogether, these results allow us to propose guidelines for the interpretation of PIV measurements in confined flow, which are based on the theoretical predictions of the tracer migration derived by Asmolov [1]

Detection of minority variants within bovine respiratory syncytial virus populations using oligonucleotide-based microarrays

Microarray technology, originally developed for highly parallel examination of gene expression is regarded as a potential tool in prognosis and diagnosis. With respect to a discrimination analysis, difference as small as one nucleotide base can be distinguished using oligonucleotide-basedmicroarrays. However, this degree of specificity is dependent on several parameters, including the size of the oligoprobes and the sequence context of the probes (e.g. local melting temperature), hybridization conditions and to some extent the chemistry of the glass slides onto which the probes are deposited. Using bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV) as a model study, an oligonucleotide-based microarray approach was developed to measure the relative abundance of a particular single nucleotide variant within mixed BRSV populations. Using this technology, we show that it is possible to discriminate at a rate of 1%, minority variants in a BRSV population

Unsupervised Classification for Tiling Arrays: ChIP-chip and Transcriptome

Tiling arrays make possible a large scale exploration of the genome thanks to probes which cover the whole genome with very high density until 2 000 000 probes. Biological questions usually addressed are either the expression difference between two conditions or the detection of transcribed regions. In this work we propose to consider simultaneously both questions as an unsupervised classification problem by modeling the joint distribution of the two conditions. In contrast to previous methods, we account for all available information on the probes as well as biological knowledge like annotation and spatial dependence between probes. Since probes are not biologically relevant units we propose a classification rule for non-connected regions covered by several probes. Applications to transcriptomic and ChIP-chip data of Arabidopsis thaliana obtained with a NimbleGen tiling array highlight the importance of a precise modeling and the region classification