Temperature control using integer-cycle binary rate modulation of the AC mains

Temperature Control of a Tube Furnace: An Experimental Approach

“…Before proceeding with the identification of this dynamic system it is appropriate to define the input in terms of a practical perspective, Barry et al [1995].…”

“…There are some contributions regarding the temperature control of different kind of furnaces, for example Barry et al [1995], Grassi et al [2000], Moon et al [2003], Huaiquan et al [2006] and Gao et al [2006]. The ideas and results presented in those papers denote the creativity, engineering and the rigorous mathematical background necessary to address some of issues involved in the temperature control of furnaces.…”

“…In Huaiquan et al [2006] the emphasis is on the implementation rather than on the control design. In Barry et al [1995], an electronics scheme is described to control the temperature of an oven. In particular, an integer-cycle binary rate modulation is presented to define the AC cycles to be applied to the heating element.…”

“…In terms of the experimental implementation, we use an electronics technique based on burst firing of an integer number of AC half-cycles. As established in Barry et al [1995], this electronics-based scheme is similar to the Pulse Width Modulation PWM with discrete steps within the PWM cycle. This scheme is clearly easier to implement than that of using a standard AC-to-AC PWM converter for modifying the RMS value, Rashid [2004].…”

“…Since the well known power electronics phase control scheme is not used, no partial half-cycles are applied, therefore harmonics injection is significantly reduced, Rashid [2004]. Transfer functions are utilized in Barry et al [1995], Grassi et al [2000] and Moon et al [2003]. In contrast, we employ a state space design involving the pole placement technique and the integral control by state augmentation.…”