Modeling and decoupling control simulation for a virtual coupling heater system

This paper describes a system comprising two heaters closely located, whose characteristics such as temperature-coupling and long adjustment time cause unsatisfactory performance when using conventional control methods. A modeling and control method has been developed for this system, that is: a decoupling compensator is designed to diagonalize the transfer function matrix of the controlled object so that each controller only acts on the relative controlled object, and the interaction between the circuits is eliminated as a result. Some recursive difference equation algorithms are introduced based on the PID concept, as well as a decoupling compensation algorithm and a twin-screw extruder heater model. Research results show that the temperature adjustment time is decreased from 17 minutes to 8 minutes using this new method. Overshoot is also reduced from 15% to 7%, while steady-state error from 2°C to 1°C, all of which are significant improvements over previous methods.