Intelligent Coordinating Control Between Burn-Through Point and Mixture Bunker Level in an Iron Ore Sintering Process

Sintering is a process that involves complex physical and chemical reactions. An intelligent coordinating control strategy is proposed for the strong coupling between the burn-through point (BTP) and the mixture bunker level (MBL). First, an intelligent integrated controller is established for the BTP by fusing the neural network, expert rules, and fuzzy logic. Moreover, an expert controller is designed for the MBL based on expert rules using the analysis of the main factors that affect the MBL. Furthermore, by employing the soft switching control algorithm, an intelligent coordinating controller for the BTP and the MBL is designed. The optimal operation parameters are obtained from the algorithm, which realize the multi-objective control of the sintering process. Finally, a simulation and an experiment of the intelligent coordinating control between the BTP and the MBL are carried out, where the models of the BTP and the MBL are the Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model and the linear model, respectively. And the results show that the proposed approach is feasible and effective.