Impulse control with liquid level limits and minimization of actuations

Author(s)

Nathalie Carvalho Pinheiro

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação
• Defense date: 2009-07-30

Examining board members

João Bosco Ribeiro do Val; Daniel Oliveira Cajueiro; Rafael Santos Mendes

• Advisor: João Bosco Ribeiro do Val

Abstract

The high costs in offshore oil production are reduced with the use of an innovative system which has been developed by Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company. Called VASPS (Vertical Annular Separation and Pumping System), it consists of an undersea gas/liquid separator. This work presents a strategy for the liquid level adjustment in the VASPS tank, which is subject to uncertain liquid inflow. This is far from a strict control regulator problem, since the liquid level may drifts freely inside an operation range. Although, in one hand, it is necessary to account for a risky operation near the limits, on the other hand, acting freely and continuously in the controlled pump may drastically shorten the lifetime of the equipment. To prevent premature worn with halt in the oil production, the control input variations should be meager. We propose a stochastic impulse control for varying the outflow pump speed. This formulation is transformed in a sequence of iterated optimal stopping problems, which results in a sequence of variational inequalities. We employ the numerical method called Mean Value Scheme (MVS) to solve this type of problem. This monograph introduces impulse control to the resevoir level adjustment of VASPS, together with the application of the MVS to its solution. (AU)