Automated control of heat treatment process of cocoa beans using Pid controllers

Automated control of heat treatment process of cocoa beans using Pid controllers

Alexander Nikolayevich Chokhonelidze, Lempogo Forgor, William Brown-Acquaye

Thermal treatment processes such as roasting and drying are very energy intensive
and considering the ever-increasing cost of energy, there is the need for continuous process
improvement in order to reduce operational cost, while maintaining or improving the quality of the
end cocoa products. This work describes the design and simulation of an automated control system
(ACS) based on a PID controller algorithm for the control of the thermal treatment of cocoa beans in
a conveyor belt dryer. The thermal treatment processes is modelled as a continuous, spatially
distributed single input single output system (SISO), where the control variable is the temperature of
the inlet drying air and the controlled variable, the product temperature in the drying chamber.
Software and hardware requirement of the ACS were also presented and discuss. Numerical
simulations of the ACS were carried out using Matlab and Simulink. Overall, the numerical simulation
results show that the PID controller is stable and robust in terms of input disturbance rejection. The
system provides relatively fast response in terms of eliminating offset and steady state error in the
thermal treatment process.
Keywords: PID controller; heat treatment; cocoa; automated control; control strategy;
mathematical modeling

Общество с ограниченной ответственностью Издательство Мир науки

2014

https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=BDvl0VYAAAAJ&citation_for_view=BDvl0VYAAAAJ:u5HHmVD_uO8C

English