Experimental control of a cupola furnace
- Idaho State Univ., Pocatello, ID (United States)
- Lockheed Martin Idaho Technologies Co., Idaho Falls, ID (United States). Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Lab.
- Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville, TN (United States). Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept.
- Dept. of Energy, Albany, OR (United States). Albany Research Center
In this paper the authors present some final results from a research project focused on introducing automatic control to the operation of cupola iron furnaces. The main aim of this research is to improve the operational efficiency and performance of the cupola furnace, an important foundry process used to melt iron. Previous papers have described the development of appropriate control system architectures for the cupola. In this paper experimental data is used to calibrate the model, which is taken as a first-order multivariable system with time delay. Then relative gain analysis is used to select loop pairings to be used in a multiloop controller. The resulting controller pairs melt rate with blast volume, iron temperature with oxygen addition, and carbon composition with metal-to-coke ratio. Special (nonlinear) filters are used to compute melt rate from actual scale readings of the amount of iron produced and to smooth the temperature measurement. The temperature and melt rate loops use single-loop PI control. The composition loop uses a Smith predictor to discount the deadtime associated with mass transport through the furnace. Experiments conducted at the Department of Energy Albany Research Center`s experimental research cupola validate the conceptual controller design and provide proof-of-concept of the idea of controlling a foundry cupola.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho State Univ., Measurement and Control Engineering Research Center, Pocatello, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FC07-94ID13321
- OSTI ID:
- 656555
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-980623-1; ON: DE98005085; TRN: AHC29817%%111
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 1998 American controls conference, Philadelphia, PA (United States), 24-26 Jun 1998; Other Information: PBD: [1998]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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