Control system for forced-air cooling of horticultural products

This work is a study of the implementation of a classical controller using a tuning method referred to as IMC (Internal Model Control) and aimed at the reduction of electrical energy consumption by the appropriate relation between energy consumption and the cooling time with forced air. The supervis...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Silva,João C. T. R. da (author)
Other Authors: Mederos,Bárbara J. T. (author)
Format: article
Language:eng
Published: 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100-69162011000400001
Country:Brazil
Oai:oai:scielo:S0100-69162011000400001
Description
Summary:This work is a study of the implementation of a classical controller using a tuning method referred to as IMC (Internal Model Control) and aimed at the reduction of electrical energy consumption by the appropriate relation between energy consumption and the cooling time with forced air. The supervisory system installed was able to manipulate the variable of frequency of the signal power of the exhaust fan engine (forced air module), to accelerate or decelerate the loss of heat from the product to be cooled by airflow variation that passes through the mass of the produce. The results demonstrated a reduction in energy consumption from 64% and an increase of only 8% in the cooling time to the system using PI/IMC (Proportional - Integral with IMC) tuning method compared with the system in its operating nominal condition. This PI/IMC control may be implemented directly in a frequency converter, without the need to purchase a computer or PLC (programmable logic controller) to run the dedicated application, increasing its economical viability.