Development and Validation of the Mathematical Model of an Experimental Platform for Heat Transfer Processes

In this article, the development of a mathematical model expressed in a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations that describes the dynamics of an experimental platform for heat transfer processes is presented. To validate how closely the model’s dynamics approximate reality, 10 experiments were conducted under different scenarios where both the mathematical model and the real platform received the same stimulus. Using the values acquired by the industrial controller as a reference and comparing them with the simulated values, validation was performed using the CV (RMSE) error as a metric. It was established that, for the simulation of each temperature to be acceptable, this error should not exceed the 20% limit in the experiments conducted. Based on the validation metric values obtained, it was concluded that the mathematical model developed in this work adequately represents the real process and allows simulation of the system’s two most relevant states. Therefore, the model an be used to evaluate control strategies on the platform and understand physical behaviors in heat transfer processes.