Robust control of cupola iron furnaces

We present the results of a continuing effort towards the introduction of automatic control to the operation of cupola iron furnaces. The cupola furnace has played an important role in the foundry industry since its invention in 1794. The main aim of this research is to improve the operational efficiency and performance of the cupola furnace. A lumped model for the cupola is used for the controller design. The controller is divided into three parts. A feedforward controller is used to decouple the model into delayed and undelayed dynamics. A robust controller is designed for the delayed dynamics of the model based upon a combination of H/sub /spl infin// control and a Smith predictor. The controller for the undelayed portion of the model is designed using an LQR procedure.