IJAMS

SIMULTANEOUS REGULATION OF TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITE

INSIDE A DRYING LOOP
H. Messaoud

Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Monastir

Route de Kairouan Monastir 5019- Tunisia
E-mail:hassani.messaoud@enim.rnu.tn
Tel: 002163500511; Fax: 002163500514

K. Bouzrara
Tunisie Télécom Complexe Télécom Kasbah
Division S.I.G – 1006 Bab Suika- Tunisia
Tel: 002161576462 ; Fax: 002161576509

To realise a drying system one has to maintain constant temperature and humidity according to the
need of the material to be dried. Thus the previous data have to be controlled permanently and
their control system should be set up. In this paper we are interested in simultaneous control of
temperature and humidity inside a blower used as a drying loop system. Because of the
correlation between these data, the drying system is handled as a bivariable process with heating
power and steam quantity as inputs and temperature and humidity as outputs. Once data are
acquired the structure (delay and order) as well as the parameters of the bivariable process are
identified for different operating points. The identified model is used to develop a bivariable pole
placement controller. To execute control signals an interface card and a control card have been
realised to translate the control signals issued from the controller into a heating power sent to
electric resistors to control temperature and an electromagnetic valve opening duration to control
the humidity. Since the steam is generated by a boiler, the water level inside the boiler has to be
controlled continuously. The realised cards and the elaborated software enable such control too.

Keywords: Acquisition, Process Identification, Control synthesis.

1. INTRODUCTION
Numerical process control consists in the synthesis of a numerical controller which
enables to satisfy some desired performances. When the process model is not available we have
to identify its structure (order and delay ) and its parameters. If the model parameters are time
varying, they should be identified continuously and the designed controller has to be self tuned
to cope with the identified model. The process under study in this paper is a drying loop used for
drying building materials. To achieve drying operation, the temperature and the moisture inside
the blower have to be set to specific values at each time instant, depending on the need and the
specifications of the material to be dried. The regulation of temperature and humidity is useful for
many other manufacturing processes such as textile industries, air conditioning, drying, …
In this paper we propose the simultaneous regulation of the temperature and the humidity inside
the drying loop cited above. The material to be dried is submitted to an air flow where a specific
temperature and humidity have to be set. To do so, a heating system using electric resistors and a

Vol. 3, Issue 2 (2000, 63-82

 2000 IJAMS
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any
Form without the permission of the chief editor
64 H. MESSAOUD, K. BOUZRARA

humidifying system, based on water steam injection, deliver heat and steam respectively to
achieve these specific values. Because of the correlation and the interdependence of the
temperature and the humidity, a separate control of them seems insufficient and a simultaneous
control is more accurate. Consequently, the drying process is handled as a bivariable process
with temperature and humidity as outputs and heating power and steam quantity as inputs. At
each step the temperature and the humidity are acquired through a data acquisition card, then
structure as well as parameters of the bivariable model are identified, using multivariable
identification methods (Rhaimi (1986) ,Norton (1986), Ljung (1987)), for different operating
points. The fitness of the identified model to the process is studied using a validation test. The
identified model is used to compute a multivariable pole placement controller (Åström &
Wittenmark 1984 ), which yield control signals. For the heating process the control signal issued
from the controller defines the cyclic ratio of a train-wave modulator power interface and the
heating power sent to the resistors is proportional to the programmed cyclic ratio. For the
humidifying process, the control signal calculates the opening time of an electromagnetic valve
through which the steam, generated by an electric boiler, is injected inside the blower with a
constant rate. The steam quantity, proportional to the valve opening time, controls the steam
pressure and therefore the humidity inside the blower. Consequently the bivariable process inputs
become the programmed cyclic ratio and the opening time. The water level inside the boiler has
to be set at its maximum. In fact a level drop may damage resistors and the boiler won’t be able
to afford the required steam quantity. To overcome this problem, the maximal water level is
detected permanently and the water pump is activated once this level isn’t satisfied.

In section 2 we give a presentation of the drying process, where the blower and the boiler
are described and the energy balance and the dependence relations between temperature and
humidity are presented. Section 3 is devoted to the description of the data acquisition system
which allows the reading of temperature and humidity and the maximal water level detection. In
section 4 we present the interface card responsible for transforming control signals issued from
the controller into pulses with defined width which control circuits in a control card. Section 5
describes the control card responsible for translating the pulses issued from the interface card
into power signals to execute the respective actions. Section 6 deals with identification of
structure and parameters of the bivariable process and section 7 is devoted to pole placement
controller. Experimental results on the identified model and the regulated temperature and
humidity are presented to illustrate our study.

2. DRYING LOOP PRESENTATION

The dying loop is composed of two main elements, the blower and the boiler. The blower
contains a 1.1KW power centrifugal fan with a circular input and a rectangular output which
is converted to square section by a diffuser, a heating system using electric resistors with total
power 16 KW, a variab le gear transmission, a humidifying system using water steam generated
by an electric boiler , a tranquillisation room and a trying vein used for experiments. The heat
transfer from inside to outside the blower is realised either by forced convection between the
internal air and the internal wall or by natural convection and by radiation between the ambient
air and the external wall. The boiler contains three resistors, a pressure controller, a level
detector, a safety valve, a water pump and an electromagnetic valve at the output which enables
and disables the steam injection. When the maximal water level is reached, the resistors are
switched on to boil the water till the maximal pressure is reached. When the water level falls
down to its minimal value, the water pump is switched on automatically to fill the boiler.
 Simultaneous Regulation of Temperature and Humidity Inside a Drying Loop 65

The energy conservation equation is given by:

∫∫∫
d
ρ e dv = Qc + QT + Wf + Wp + W m (2.1)
dt v
where QT is the thermal power lost by convection and radiation, Qc the power provided to
the syst em, Wf the power dissipated by sluggish friction, Wm the power due to moving pieces,
WP the mechanical power due to pressure variation, ρ the density and e the energy given by:
2
v
e = u+ + gz (2.2)
2
where u is the internal energy proportional to the temperature, g.z the massic potential energy
and v2 /2 the massic kinetic energy. From relations (2.1) and (2.2), the temperature T and the
heating power Qc are related by

a(t,T) d T (t ) + b(t,T) T(t) = Q c(t) + Qext(t) (2.3)

dt

where Q ext(t) is the set of heat exchanged between the inside and the outside of the blower and
Qc(t) the heat supplied by the heating system. Equation (2.3) defines a non linear first order system
with time varying parameters. Similarly the humidity and the steam pressure are related by:

a’(t,T) d H (t ) + b’(t,T) H(t) = Ps (t) + ξ (t) (2.4)

dt

ξ (t) is the modelling error and the relative humidity is given by:
C Pa M a
H% = (2.5)
M s ( 1 − C ) P s ( ∞)
With Pa is the air pressure, Ps ( ∞) the saturation steam pressure, Ma the air molar mass, Ms the
steam molar mass and C is the concentration given by:

Ps Ms
C = (2.6)
Pa Ma + Ps Ms
with P s the steam pressure .

Equations (2.5) and (2.6) lead to a linear relation between relative humidity and steam pressure

Ps
H% = (2.7)
Ps (∞ )
From the relation of perfect gas, we have

Mn R T
H%= (2.8)
V Ps ( ∞)
Where Mn the steam mole number, T its temperature and V its volume. The steam mass, m is:
66 H. MESSAOUD, K. BOUZRARA

M s H% V P ss (T )
m = Mn Ms = (2.9)
RT
and then

d m Ms V Pss ( T) d H M V H % d [ Pss ( T) / T ]
= + s (2.10)
dt RT dt R dt
Relation (2.10) shows the correlation between the temperature and the humidity. Consequently
considering the heating and the humidifying systems as two separate single input single output
processes may lead to unsatisfactory results for some operating points. In the following, we
consider the drying loop (blower & boiler ) as a bivariable process with heating power and steam
quantity as inputs and temperature and humidity as outputs. We assume that both structure and
parameters of this process are unknown and have to be identified. The controller to be
synthesised has to consider the drying process as a bivariable process and then to generate two
control signals.

3. DATA ACQUISITION

3.1 Water level acquisition

As stated above, the boiler contains two level indicators one for the maximal level and the
other for the minimal one. The water pump is switched on once the minimal level is reached.
However the cold water quantity injected into the boiler till reaching the maximal level, may
decrease the steam pressure and then the humidity inside the blower. To overcome this problem,
the quantity of cold water injected into the boiler should be as small as possible. Thus the
maximal level is controlled permanently and the pump is excited once this level decreases so that
the lost water quantity is immediately added.

The only available information from the maximal level is the presence of a 220V
alternative differential potential when this level is reached. To read this information, an
adaptation system is required . The electronic card given by Figure 1 is responsible for such
adaptation. When the phase is present it is applied, through the resistor R1 , to the input of the
photo coupler 6N138, the output of which is tuned to a TTL signal (5V). The presence of this
level implies the set up to 1 of a bit and the water pump is switched on once this bit moves to 0.

Phase +5V
R1R1 1 8
2 7
3 6N138 6
4 5
D1
GND R2 Output

Figure 1: Adaptation Card

3.2 Temperature and humidity acquisition

The acquired data are voltages proportional to temperature and humidity and issued
respectively from the thermocouple and the hygrometer. For the thermocouple the cold junction
 Simultaneous Regulation of Temperature and Humidity Inside a Drying Loop 67

has to be compensated. To convert voltage to temperature we divide the temperature range into
5°C length intervals, then we linearise the relation temperature vo ltage and we compute the lower
values Tmin and Vmin and the slope p. For a voltage V the temperature is given by:

T = p (V – Vmin) + Tmin (3.1)

The used hygrometer is the one that measures the relative humidity between 0 and 100%.
The used data acquisition system is a 12 bits card with 8 input multiplexer. It contains a signal
conditioning device equipped with a high gain differential amplifier and a cascade of low pass
filters with small cut-off frequency to discard noises due to electromagnetic fields.

L4 – L7 VR1 – VR8
Switches
SW3
SW2 SW1
Main Card

PC I/O BUS

Auxiliary Card

Figure 2 : Card Configuration

The card is provided with a cold junction compensation device and an interface which
enables the communication of the card with the computer. It is composed of two others. The
main one contains the conditioning element, the multiplexer and the Analog to Digital Converter.
The auxiliary card, connected to the main one and contains the ambient temperature sensor and
the connectors for the thermocouple inputs. The basic address of the card is fixed by the switch
SW1 , the amplifier gain is fixed by SW3. The links L4 - L7 are used to select interruptions when
the card operates in interrupt mode and the potentiometers VR1 to VR8 serve to eliminate offset
tension on all channels . This card contains 8 registers described in Table 1 and their structures
are given in Table 2. The data acquisition card functions either in polling mode or interrupt mode.
For the first mode, the Analog to Digital conversion and the read/write operations are software
controlled and the computer still busy during the acquisition process. For the second mode the
computer is liberated since the counters are configured to handle the conversion operation.

The input voltage, issued from the thermocouple in case of temperature or from the
hygrometer in the case of humidity, is amplified and converted in 11 bits plus 1 sign bit. The
least significant 4 bits belong to the register LDATA and the most significant 7 bits with the
sign bit are collected in register HDATA. The register CHANN uses bits 1 to 3 to select one
among 8 analog inputs and bit 5 is used for cold junction compensation.
68 H. MESSAOUD, K. BOUZRARA

Table 1 : Register Structure.

Register Name Description

0 HDATA MSB of ADC
1 LDATA LSB of ADC
2 CHANN Channel select
3 CNTRL ADC and Timers Control
4 COUNTER 0 Counter 0 of Timer 8254
5 COUNTER 1 Counter 1 of Timer 8254
6 COUNTER 2 Counter 2 of Timer 8254
7 CNTRL- COUNTR Command of Timer 8254

Table 2 : Register configuration

Register Bit 7 Bit 6 Bit 5 Bit 4 Bit 3 Bit 2 Bit 1 Bit 0

LDATA D3 D2 D1 Do xx xx xx xx
HDATA Sign D10 D9 D8 D7 D6 D5 D4
CHANN xx xx xx CJC xx CH2 CH1 CH0
CTRL : WRITE xx xx xx VC 2 IE R/C T/I AC
CTRL : READ xx xx xx xx IE R/C T/I EC

The register CNTRL controls the analog to digital conversion operation. Its structures in
writing and reading mode are given in Table 2. The bit AC enables auto conversion when
counters of the card are configured in interrupt mode. The bit T/I is used to trigger or interrupt the
card functioning in interrupt mode. The bit R/C allows the start of conversion and data
reading. When this bit is 0 and the bit EC (End of Conversion ) is 1, the numerical value
equivalent to the temperature or humidity is read from registers HDATA and LDATA. The bit
VC2 validates counter 2 of timer 8254 to start conversion in interrupt mode and bit IE enables
hardware interruption using L4 - L7. The registers COUNTER 0 and COUNTER 1 control
respectively counters 0 and 1 of timer 8254 which are cascade made and programmed in mode 2
as a pulse generators to fix the sampling period. The frequency of counter 0 is fixed by switch
SW2. The counter 1 output is connected to bit R/C of ADC to control the auto conversion. Both
counters 0 and 1 are validated by the AC bit of the CNTRL register. The register COUNTER 2
controls counter 2 of the 8254 timer. This counter has to be programmed in mode 4 as a
monostable and its output is used in interrupt mode to start the AD conversion. It is validated by
the bit VC2 and it has to be configured in the interrupt routine to enable different measurements
of the same channel. It allows to execute the AD conversion of signals ready on other channels.
Register CNTRL-COUNTER contains the command word of timer 8254 which enables to
configure all counters.

4. INTERFACE CARD

The realised interface card is inserted into the computer and connected to the control
card. It translates the control signals issued from the computer into pulses with defined duration.
These pulses command the control circuits in the control card which themselves control the
actuators such as electric resistors, electromagnetic valve or water pump. Then the heating power
is defined by the time of feeding of electric resistors, the steam quantity is given by the opening
 Simultaneous Regulation of Temperature and Humidity Inside a Drying Loop 69

time of electromagnetic valve and the water quantity is given by the functioning time of the water
pump. The card synoptic, designed around the Programmable Interval Timer PIT 8253, is given
by Figure 3.

4.1. Address decoding

The basic address is fixed by an 8 bit address comparator the 74688 which compares two
8 bit numbers P and Q and activates its output, port select, if numbers are equal. The circuit
74688 is selected by the AEN ( Address Enable ) signal connected to its selection pin. When P =
Q, a signal is used to validate the address decoder 74139 which allocates the appropriate address.

Address Bus Address

Address Bus Decoding CS Cpt0

Data
Data Bus
Bus PIT Cpt1
8253
Control
Control Bus Cpt2

Feeding
Supply

Figure 3 : Interface Card

4.2. Timers
Two timers are used to realise the interface card, the Programmable Interval Timer (PIT)
8253 and the Clock NE 555.

REGISTER CONTROL STATUS

CLK
COUNTER ELEMENT High-Byte Low -Byte GATE
COUNTER REGISTER High-Byte Low -Byte
OUT
LATCH High-Byte Low -Byte

Figure 4 : Counter Configuration

The 8253 contains three counters each has two inputs the Clock and the Gate and one
output. Each counter contains a Control Register, a Status Register, a Counter Register (CR) to
receive the initial count , a Counter Element (CE) assuring the counting and not accessible to the
70 H. MESSAOUD, K. BOUZRARA

microprocessor and finally an Output Latch (OL) to lock the counter element content and let it
available for reading. CR, CE and OL are 8 bit pair registers as shown in Figure 4. The mode
register, given by Figure 5, is used to specify the functioning mode of each counter. Bits SC1 and
SC0 are used to select counters, bits RL1 and RL0 for reading/loading and bits M2, M1 and M0
define the mode. Finally the bit BCD controls the counter functioning either in binary or BCD.
There are six different functioning modes of counters, however only two are used in our
application, the mode 1 and the mode 2.

SC1 SC0 RL1 RL0 M2 M1 M0 BCD

Figure 5: Mode register

In mode 1, the timer functions as a programmable monostable, where a content N in the

counter element generates a negative pulse with N clock cycle width. In mode 2 we have a pulse
generator which yields in the output one clock cycle width pulses. The timer NE 555 is used as
an astable. Its output is a train-wave between two levels as in Figure 6. The width of each level
depends on the value of resistors and capac itors .
T
Vcc

0V
T1 T2

Figure 6

T1 = 0.693 . RB . C ; T2 = 0.693 . ( RA + RB) . C ; T = T1 + T2

4.3. Interface Card Programming

The interface card responsible for delivering adequate signal to control heating power,
steam quantity and wa ter level . It uses two 8253 timers and one NE555 timer. The counters of
timers 8253 are programmed in the following modes as in Table 3 and the allocated addresse of
each timer is given in Table 4.
All the clock inputs are connected to the output of the timer NE555. Each two counters are
cascade combined so that the output of the first counter, programmed in mode 2 which yield a set
of regular pulses, is connected to the gate of the second counter programmed in mode 1 to deliver
a pulse, the width of whic h is defined by the control signal issued from the computer. Since they
are negative all the counter outputs have to be inverted before being connected to the appropriate
gates. Consequently the output of counter 0 of timer 1 is connected to the gate of counter 1 of the
same timer and the output of counter 1 is used for control of heating power. In the same way the
output of counter 2 of timer 1 is connected to the gate of counter 0 of timer 2, the output of which
is used for controlling the steam quantity. Finally, the output of counter 1 of timer 2 is connected
to the gate of counter 2 of the same timer and the output is used for controlling water pump.
 Simultaneous Regulation of Temperature and Humidity Inside a Drying Loop 71

Table 3 : Programming modes of Counters

Timer 1 Timer 2
Counter 0 Mode 2 Mode 1
Counter 1 Mode 1 Mode 2
Counter 2 Mode 2 Mode 1

Table 4: Interface Card Addresses

TIMER 1 TIMER 2
PORT ADDRESS PORT ADDRESS
Counter 0 318 Counter 0 310
Counter 1 319 Counter 1 311
Counter2 31A Counter2 312
Control Register 31B Control Register 313

5. CONTROL CARD

The pulses issued from the interface card are applied through an isolation device to the
control card to be transformed into actions . The isolation is achieved with the MOC3020 which
contains a photodiode as a transmitter and a photo triac as a receiver.The control card contains
five modules similar to that of figure 7, three of them are devoted to the control of electric
resistors, one for the electromagnetic valve and the fifth one for the water pump.Each control
signal is a pulse with a specific width, issued from the interface card as mentioned above. As
long as the pulse is active as long as the corresponding element is active too.

R2 R3
R1
R1
Control 1 6 Phase
Signal
2 MOC 5
3020
3 4
Output
R4
Figure 7 : Control Card

6. PROCESS IDENTIFICATION

The system under study is a bivariable one so we apply the identification methods
developed for the multivariable case for structure ( order and delay ) and parameter identification.

6.1. Order estimation

The order estimation consists on the modelling of the system by an m-order model, then
increasing this order and compute a specific criterion (Doulaye 1989). The true system order
72 H. MESSAOUD, K. BOUZRARA

corresponds to the value of m for which the computed criterion presents a specific behaviour such
as a jump or drop. The method used is developed by El sherif and Sinha (1982), based on the
residual error technique.
Consider the input/output model given by the following difference equation:

A(q-1 ) y(k) = B(q -1 ) u(k) (6.1)

where u(k) and y(k) are respectively the input and the output vectors of the system at time instant
k, q-1 is the backward shift operator and A(q-1 ) and B(q-1 ) are polynomial matrices defined as:

A(q-1) = I m + A1 q-1 + . . . + Ana q-na . (6.2)

B(q-1) = B1 q-1 + . . . + Bnb q-nb . (6.3)

Where Ai ( i = 1, …, na ) and Bj ( j = 1, …, nb ) are m by m and m by p scalar matrices

respectively, Im is the identity matrices of order m. The output of the i- th subsystem, yi can be
written at time instant k as:

m nir p ni
yi(k) = ∑ ∑ air ,ν yr ( k + ν − nir − 1) + ∑ ∑ bij,ν u j ( k + ν − ni − 1) (6.4)
r=1 ν =1 j=1 ν =1

So yi(k) is a linear combination of [y1 (k- ni1 ) . . . y1 (k - 1)], . . . , [ym (k- ni1 ) . . . ym (k - 1)]
[u1 (k- ni ) . . . u1 (k - 1)], . . . , [up (k- ni) . . . up (k - 1) ]

The terms nir and ni are given by :

ni if i = r

n ir = min ( ni +1 , n r) if i > r (6.5)
min ( , ) if i < r
 ni n r

where i = 1, 2, …, m ; r = 1, 2, …, m ; j = 1, 2, …, p

This result is very useful for order determination of subsystem i. In fact a vector y is a linear
combination of a set of vector xi , i = 1, …, n if there exists a vector θ = [a1 , …, an ]T such that y
= x θ , where x is the matrix containing vectors xi , i = 1, …, n.
Because of the difficulty to estimate the vector θ, we use
≠
θ0 = x y (6.6)

where x≠ is the pseudo inverse of matrix x. The corresponding vector y0 to θ 0 is:

y 0 = x θ 0 = x x≠ y (6.7)

The residual error is defined as :

2 ≠
y−y = (y – y 0 )T (y – y 0) = yT ( I – x x ) y
o
e(θ 0 ) = (6.8)

The vector y is a linear combination of vectors x if and only if

e(θ 0 ) = 0 (6.9)
 Simultaneous Regulation of Temperature and Humidity Inside a Drying Loop 73

Equation (6.4) can be written in a matrix form as:

yi (k) = hi (vi, k) θi (vi) (6.10)

where
hi (vi, k) = [y1 (k - vi) , …, ym (k - 1) u1 (k - vi ) , …, up (k - 1)] (6.11)

θi (vi) = [ai1,1 , …, a im,v i b i1,1 , …, b ip, vi]T (6.12)

For N measurements , equation (6.10) leads to

yi (1) 
  R i (vi) 
Yi (N) =  M  = [ Pi(vi, N) Qi(vi, N) ]   (6.13)
yi ( N)  Si (vi) 

With Ri (vi) = [ai1,1 , …, a im,v i]T ; Si (vi) = [b i1,1 , …, b ip,vi]T

y1 (1−vi ) L y1(0) L ym (1− vi ) L ym (0)  u1 (1− vi ) L u1 (0) L up (1− vi ) L up (0) 
   
Pi (vi , N) =  M M M M  Qi (vi , N) =  M M M M 
y1 (N − vi ) L y1(0) L ym (N −vi ) L ym (0) u1 (N − vi ) L u1 (0)L up (N − vi ) L up (0)
Let’s note
H i (v i , N ) = [ Pi(vi, N) Q i(vi, N) ] (6.14)

Equation (6.8) can be written as:

ei ( vi ) = Y i ( N) [ I − Hi (vi , N ) Hi ( vi , N ) ] Y i ( N )
o T ≠
(6.15)

H≠i ( vi , N) is the pseudo inverse of Hi (vi, N). The order of subsystem i is the value of vi such
that eoi ( vi ) is minimal.

6.2. Delay determination

In Landau (1993) it was developed a method for time delay identification in case of single
input single output system. We adapt this method for the case of multivariable system. We
consider dij the time delay of each subsystem. Without prior information about dij, we assume dij
=0, then we identify the matrix Bij (q-1 ) using least square identification method. If the delay is
under estimated the first coefficients of Bij (q-1 ) will be very small with respect to other
coefficients.

) −1
Bij (q ) = b̂ij, o + b̂ij,1 q + L + b̂ij,ni q
−1 − ni
(6.16)

If b̂ij, o ≤ 0.15 b̂ij,1 then bij,0 = 0, we increase the delay and we reprocess identification.
74 H. MESSAOUD, K. BOUZRARA

6.3. Parameter identification

To take into account the measurement noise, the equation (6.10) can be rewritten as:

yi ( k) = Ψ Ti (k ) θi + ei (k ) (6.17)

where Ψ i (k) is the regression vector and θi the parameter vector respectively given by:

θi = [a i 1,1 L a i1 ,ni 1 L a im , nim L a im ,ni L bi 1,1 L bi 1, ni L bip ,1 L b ip, ni ]

T

ψi = [− y1( k − ni 1) L − y1 (k − 1) L − y1( k − nim) L − y1( k − 1) U]

T

with

U = [u1 (k − ni ) L u1 ( k − 1) L up (k − n i ) L u p ( k − 1) ]

The extended least squares algorithm consists on estimating the parameter vector θi so that the
criterion J is minimised.

∑[ y (s ) − Ψ (s ) θ ]
2
J (N) = i
T
i i (6.18)
s = ni +1

where N is the measurement number. The recursive version of the extended least squares
algorithm is summarised in Table 5.
Table 5 : Recursive extended least squares algorithm

) ) )
θi (k ) = θi (k − 1) + Gi (k ) [ yi (k ) - Ψi ( k) (k) θi (k − 1) ]
T

Pi (k − 1) Ψ i (k )
Gi (k ) =
1 + Ψ Ti (k ) Pi ( k − 1) Ψ i ( k)

Pi ( k − 1) Ψi ( k) Ψi ( k) Pi (k − 1)
T
Pi (k) = Pi(k-1) -
1 + ΨTi (k ) Pi ( k − 1) Ψi ( k)

6.4 Validation of the identified model

To evaluate the fitness of the identified model with the real process, we adopt the test of
whiteness of the prediction error given by:
) )
εi (k, θ) = yi (k ) − Ψ i ( k) θi (k − 1)
T
(6.19)

The test consists on the evaluation of the auto-correlation function given by:
) )
lim E {εi ( k, θi ) εi (k − j, θi ) }= 0 (6.20)
k →∞

For N measurements this function is defined as:

 Simultaneous Regulation of Temperature and Humidity Inside a Drying Loop 75

N
) )
∑ { εi (k, θi) }
1
R(j) = εi ( k − j, θi ) (6.21)
N k =1

Or on its normalized form

R ( j)
RN (j) = (6.22)
R (0)
With R(0) is the variance of the prediction error
)
N

∑ ε ( k, θ )
1 2
R(0) = i i (6.23)
N k =1

If the prediction error sequence is white then

RN(j) = 0 ∀ j > 0 (6.24)

However in practical situations we adopt the inequality

RN(j) ≤ 0.15 ∀ j > 0 (6.25)

6.5. Experimental results

The order estimation as well as the parameter estimation algorithms presented in
paragraph 6.1 and 6.3 respectively are tested on the drying loop system. The input signals are
sinusoids. The evolution of the corresponding humidity and temperature is given by Figure 8, the
evolution of residual errors e1 and e2 with the order are drawn in Figure 9.

80

Temperature (°C)
70

60

Humidity (%)
50

40

30

20
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Figure 8 : Process outputs
76 H. MESSAOUD, K. BOUZRARA

Residual Error e 1 Residual Error e 2

5200 1500

5198 1450

5196 1400

5194 1350

5192 1300

5190 1250
2 4 6 8 2 4 6 8

Residual Error Variation Residual Error Variation

1

0.8 150

* *
0.6 e1 100
e2
0.4
50
0.2

0 0
2 4 6 2 4 6

Figure 9 : Residual error evoultion

In Table 6 we list the values of the residual errors e1 and e2 and the residual error variations
* *
e1 and e2 , for different model order v. We note the order value where the residual error drops as
the exact system order. To confirm such assumption we compute the residual error variation
defined as:

*
ei ( vi ) = ei (vi) - ei (vi +1) (6.26)
Table 6 : Residual errors

v 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
e1 (v) 5196.5 5196.3 5196.3 5196.3 5196.1 5196.1 5196 5195.9
e2 (v) 1340.2 1263.9 1257 1254.2 1250.9 1247.7 1245.5 1244.9
e*1 (v) 0.1825 0.0415 0.0419 0.13 0.0666 0.0692 0.095
*
e2 (v) 76.2996 6.8993 2.7965 3.2666 3.2721 2.1962 0.559

So the matrices A and B can be written in the following form

1 − a1 1,1 q −1 − a1 2,1 q−1 b1 1,1 q −1 + b1 1,0 q −2 b1 2,1 q −1 + b1 2,0 q −2 

A (q −1) =  −1 −2 −1 −2 
B(q −1) =  −1 −2 −1 −2 
(6.27)
− a2 1,2 q − a 2 1,1 q 1 − a2 2,2 q − a2 2,1 q  b 2 1, 2 q + b 2 1,1 q b 2 2,2 q + b 2 2,1 q 

Equations (6.1), (6.17) and (6.27) lead to

Ψ1T ( k) = [− y1 (k - 1) − y2 (k - 1) u1 (k - 1) u1 (k - 2) u 2 (k - 1) u2 (k - 2) ] (6.28)

θ 1T = [− a 11,1 − a 12,1 b11,1 b 11,0 b12,1 b12,0 ] (6.29)

 Simultaneous Regulation of Temperature and Humidity Inside a Drying Loop 77

Ψ 2T ( k ) = [- y1 (k - 1) - y1 (k - 2) - y 2 (k - 1) - y2 (k - 2) u1 (k - 1) u1 (k - 2) u2 (k - 1) u2 (k - 2) ](6.30)

θ 2T = [− a 21,2 - a 21,1 - a 22,2 - a 22,1 b 21,2 b 21,1 b 22,2 b 22,1 ] (6.31)

The value of the parameters expresses the influence of each control signal and subsystem
output on the other subsystem output. We note that a heating power increase is more effective on
both temperature and humidity than a steam quantity increase. In Tables 7 and 8 we give the
value of the estimated parameters for different working points and in Figure 10 we draw the
estimated outputs and the experimental once for model validation.

Tableau 7: Estimated parameters of the first subsystem:H (%), T( °C)

Parameters a111 a121 b111 b110 b121 b120

Working points
30< H <40 & 61< T < 64 -0.993 -0.009 0.013 -0.007 -0.003 -1.90e-4
5< H <11& 70<T<88 -0.999 -0.037 0.0388 -0.019 -0.006 -0.009
28<H<45 & 5<T<67 -0.996 -0.004 -0.017 -0.006 -0.002 -0.001
46<H<58 & 55<T<58 -0.981 -0.001 -0.002 -0.002 -0.007 -0.0015

Tableau 8: Estimated parameters of the second subsystem :H (%), T( °C)

Parameters a212 a211 a222 a221 b212 b211 b222 b221

Working points
30< H <40 & 61<T<64 -0.628 0.539 -1.033 0.214 0.061 -0.044 -0.007 0.003
5<H<11 & 70<T<88 -0.210 0.126 -1.388 0.373 0.062 -0.01 -0.033 0.035
28<H<45 & 5<T<67 -0.017 0.037 -1.765 0.861 0.11 -0.039 -0.003 0.153
46<H<58 & 55<T< 58 -0.094 0.10 -1.245 0.289 0.015 -0.017 -0.029 0.07

T
(°C)
64
63
62
61
60
0 50 100 150 200 250

40

H
35
(%)
30

0 50 100 150 200 250

Figure 10 : Model validation ; solid lines = System output ; dotted lines = Model output
78 H. MESSAOUD, K. BOUZRARA

7. CONTROLLER SYNTHESIS

In this section we use the identified model in the previous section to synthesise a pole
placement controller which places the closed loop transfer function poles in a specified locations
inside the unit circle that traduce the desired performances. In state feedback control using pole
placement , some routines were developed. To take benefit of these routines, first we develop the
model state space representation using the input output model of relation(6.1), then we apply the
routine that determines the state feedback gain. The control vector will be proportional to that
gain and the state vector.

7.1. State space representation

The drying loop process state space representation can be written as:

x (k + 1) = F x (k) + G u (k)
 (7.1)
 y(k) = H x (k)
where x (k), u (k) and y (k) are respectively the state, the input and the output vectors. F, G and
H are respectively the transfer, the input and the output matrices with appropriate dimensions.
These matrices have to be computed using the relation (6.1).
For simplicity and without loss of generality, we assume the state variables equal to the output
variables. The state vector x and the parameter vector u are respectively chosen as:

x(k) = [ x1(k) x2 (k) x3(k) x4 (k) ]T = [ y1 (k-1) y1(k) y2 (k-1) y2 (k) ]T (7.2)

u(k) = [ u1 (k-1) u1(k) u2 (k-1) u2 (k) ]T (7.3)

The state space representation is given by:

x1 (k + 1)  0 1 0 0  x1 (k )   0 0 0 0  u1 (k − 1) 

 ( k + 1)  0 a11,1 0 a12,1 x 2 (k ) b11,0 b11,1 b12, 0 b12,1 
   (k ) 
x 2  =    + u 1  (7.4)
x3 (k + 1)  0 0 0 1  x 3 ( k )   0 0 0 0  u 2 (k − 1) 
         
x 4 ( k + 1) a 21,1 a21, 2 a 22 ,1 a 22, 2  x 4 (k ) b21,1 b21, 2 b22,1 b22 , 2  u 2 (k ) 

 x 1 (k ) 
 y1 ( k )  0 1 0 0   x 2 ( k) 
  =     (7.5)
 y 2 (k ) 0 0 0 1   x 3 (k )
 x ( k) 
 4 

where a ij,k and bij,k are the coefficients defining matrices A(q-1) and B(q-1 ) of equation (6.27).

7.2. Control synthesis

In state feedback control, the control signal is given by:

u(k) = Q r(k) - R x(k) (7.6)

 Simultaneous Regulation of Temperature and Humidity Inside a Drying Loop 79

where R is the feedback gain matrix, computed using the Matlab routine, the matrices F and G
and the pole positions. Q is the convergence matrix and r(k) is the reference signal. Using (7.1)
and (7.6), the state equation becomes

x(k+1) = (F- G R) x(k) + G Q r(k) (7.7)

When the process outputs converge, the sate x(k) becomes constant (x(k+1) = x(k)). The closed
loop transfer function is :

y(k) = H ( I - F + G R)-1 G Q r(k) (7.8)

To ensure convergence of output to the reference, the matrix Q has to be chosen such that:

H (I – F + G R) -1 G Q = I (7.9)

The closed loop transfer function poles are given by

7.3. Experimental results

To analyse the behaviour of the control algorithm when an abrupt change happens, the
references are chosen as follows:

0 < t < 78 : Temperature reference = 60 °C ; Humidity reference = 44%

78 < t < 153 : Temperature reference = 70 °C ; Humidity reference = 26%
153 < t < 217 : Temperature reference = 65 °C ; Humidity reference = 32%

The pole positions are chosen as: 0.2 ; 0.5 ; 0.4 ; 0.1.The matrices R and Q are given by

− 2.5113 33.9944 − 4.5225 12.7801   − 9.0332 − 1.5148 

2.3784 −90.2855 −0.4738 −0.8718   29.6094 −5.6864

R =   Q =  
1.7837 20.1502 6.8395 −17.6421   −9.6385 6.5060 
   
− 0.8156 21.9737 − 0.5735 2.0368   − 6.8964 0.8483 

In Figure 11 we draw the evolution of the temperature, the humidity, the heating power
(HP) control signal and the steam quantity (SQ) control signal. Both temperature and humidity
converge to their respective reference signals presented in dotted lines. For the control signal a
large value is required during the first step of control and then they converge to small values
when the outputs converge to the expected values. For the control signal corresponding to the
heating power, it still fluctuating between zero and a fixed value. Because of the use of the train
wave modulator, the control signals are transformed into programmed cyclic ratio so that they
vary between 0% and 100%. It is important to note that the main purpose here is the regulation so
that the pole positions were chosen arbitrarily inside the unit circle. However attention can be
given to other performances such as rapidity, dampness, oscillation, etc …
 80 H. MESSAOUD, K. BOUZRARA

Temperature (°C) Humidity (%)

80
80
60
60
40

40
20

0 100 200 0 100 200

Control Signal HP(%) Control Signal SQ (%)
100
80

50 60

40

0
0 100 200 0 100 200
Figure 11: Outputs and Control signals
We note that both outputs converge to their references after any jump or drop. During the
jump, the control signal corresponding to the heating power jumps and still non zero till the
convergence of temperature. At the reference drop, the control signal goes to zero because of the
absence of cooling system and the temperature decreasing is obtained by natural cooling. After
each convergence the control signal still fluctuating as the previous experience. The control
signal corresponding to the steam quantity behaves similarly but without saturation.

8. CONCLUSION

In this paper a manufacturing process control has been considered. The realised hardware
part is composed of an interface card, a control card and a level detection card. The software part
contains else than hardware managing, an identification and a control software realised and tried.
Because of the correlation the controlled data, the manufacturing process has been handled as a
multivariable one. Since model parameters vary with the working point it will be more
convenient to define a region which summarises parameter variations and serves to design a
robust controller which satisfies the required performances, nevertheless where the process
parameters vary inside the region. Parameter-bounding algorithm updating an exact polytope or
 Simultaneous Regulation of Temperature and Humidity Inside a Drying Loop 81

one of its approximations such an ellipsoid, an orthotope or a parallelotope are the best
canditates for determining parameter variation region. For the hardware part, special integrate
circuits can be designed to execute the same tasks.

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[3] El Sherif. H. & Sinha. N. K (1982), “ Determination of the structure of a canonical model for
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[4] Landau. I. D (1993), “Identification et commande des systè mes”, Edition Hermès.

[5] Ljung. L (1987), “System Identification Theory for the User ”, Prentice-Hall, Englewood
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[6] Norton, J. P (1986), “An introduction to identification ”, Academic Press, London, UK.

[7] Rhaimi. B. (1986), “ Identification Récursive des Systèmes Multivariables à Temps Discret”,
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