PID Tuning of Plants With Time Delay Using Root Locus

This thesis research uses closed-loop pole analysis to study the dynamic behavior of proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controlled feedback systems with time delay. A conventional tool for drawing root loci, the MATLAB function rlocus() cannot draw root loci for systems with time delay, and so another numerical method was devised to examine the appearance and behavior of root loci in systems with time delay. Approximating the transfer function of time delay can lead to a mismatch between a predicted and actual response. Such a mismatch is avoided with the numerical method developed here. The method looks at the angle and magnitude conditions of the closed-loop characteristic equation to identify the true positions of closed-loop poles, their associated compensation gains, and the gain that makes a time-delayed system become marginally stable. Predictions for system response made with the numerical method are verified with a mathematical analysis and cross-checked against known results. This research generates tuning coefficients for proportional-integral (PI) control of a first-order plant with time delay and PID control of a second-order plant with time delay. The research has applications to industrial processes, such as temperature-control loops

Constructions of Generalized Sidon Sets

We give explicit constructions of sets S with the property that for each integer k, there are at most g solutions to k=s_1+s_2, s_i\in S; such sets are called Sidon sets if g=2 and generalized Sidon sets if g\ge 3. We extend to generalized Sidon sets the Sidon-set constructions of Singer, Bose, and Ruzsa. We also further optimize Koulantzakis' idea of interleaving several copies of a Sidon set, extending the improvements of Cilleruelo & Ruzsa & Trujillo, Jia, and Habsieger & Plagne. The resulting constructions yield the largest known generalized Sidon sets in virtually all cases.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure (revision fixes typos, adds a few details, and adjusts notation

Sealless Pumps

Discussion Grou

A Comparison of Producer Gas, Biochar, and Activated Carbon from Two Distributed Scale Thermochemical Conversion Systems used to Process Forest Biomass

Thermochemical biomass conversion systems have the potential to produce heat, power, fuels and other products from forest biomass at distributed scales that meet the needs of some forest industry facilities. However, many of these systems have not been deployed in this sector and the products they produce from forest biomass have not been adequately described or characterized with regards to chemical properties, possible uses, and markets. This paper characterizes the producer gas, biochar, and activated carbon of a 700 kg h−1 prototype gasification system and a 225 kg h−1 pyrolysis system used to process coniferous sawmill and forest residues. Producer gas from sawmill residues processed with the gasifier had higher energy content than gas from forest residues, with averages of 2.4 MJ m−3 and 9.8 MJ m−3, respectively. Gases from the pyrolysis system averaged 1.3 MJ m−3 for mill residues and 2.5 MJ m−3 for forest residues. Biochars produced have similar particle size distributions and bulk density, but vary in pH and carbon content. Biochars from both systems were successfully activated using steam activation, with resulting BET surface area in the range of commercial activated carbon. Results are discussed in the context of co-locating these systems with forest industry operations