Exploring advanced control algorithm in thermal processing problems

• Main Author: Zhang, Cheng Cheng
• Other Authors: Er Meng Joo
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering::Computer hardware, software and systems
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/40270
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Temperature controller is being widely used in different areas, such as chemistry industry and medical field. A large number of temperature controllers in the market are using On/Off control methods, which make them less suitable for complex thermal devices such as TEC (Thermal Electrical Cooler). On the other hand, those temperature controllers implementing more complex control algorithms usually cost more. SIMTech has developed a temperature controller to control blood bag heaters. This temperature controller is portable and has a lower cost comparing to most of its alternatives in the market. However, it implements On/Off control method and it is not capable to control complex thermal devices like TEC. This project is to improve the concept of SIMTech’s controller, and develop a new temperature controller which integrates several advantages together, such as low cost, portability, and capable of implementing different control algorithms to control TEC. Discrete-time model of TEC has been built using least square method in this project, model has been used to derive the coefficients of control algorithms. Different control methods such as PID Control and Inverse Control have been implemented into the new temperature controller to achieve better control of TEC.