DYNAMIC MODELING AND PARAMETER ESTIMATION FOR AN EPDM PROCESS

A general dynamic model for continuous EPDM polymerization in which crosslinking and gel formation are attributable to reactions between pendant double bonds has been developed. A pseudo- kinetic rate constant method is introduced to construct a moment model for a pseudo-homopolymer that approximates the behavior of the actual terpolymer under long chain and quasi-steady state assumptions. The proposed dynamic model is capable of predicting polydispersities and molecular weight distributions near the gel point. A parameter selection procedure is proposed to determine the kinetic parameters that can be estimated from the limited plant data. The procedure is based on the steady-state parameter output sensitivity matrix. The overall effect of each parameter on the measured outputs is determined using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The key kinetic parameters determined by the parameter selection procedure were estimated from steady-state data extracted from dynamic plant data using a newly developed steady state detection tool.