Predicted Speed Control based on Fuzzy Logic for Belt Conveyors : Fuzzy Logic Control for Belt Conveyors

Sammanfattning: In order to achieve energy savings for belt conveyor system, speed control provides one of the best solutions. Most of the traditional belt conveyors used in the industries are based on constant speed for all operational times. Due to the need and advancements in technology, Variable Frequency Drives (VFD) are employed in industries for a number of processes. Passive Speed Control was previously suggested for the proper utilization of VFD to make belt conveyor systems more power e- cient with increased life expectancy and reduced environmental eects including the noise reduction caused by constant speed of operation. Due to certain conditions and nature of operation of belt conveyor systems, it is not desirable to use Passive Speed control where feeding rate is random. Due to the extreme non-linearity of the random feeding rate, an Active speed control for VFD is desired which adjusts belt speed according to the material loading. In this thesis an Active Speed control for VFD is proposed that can achieve energy and cost ecient solutions for belt conveyor systems as well as avoiding half-lled belt operations. The aim of this thesis work is primarily to determine reliability and validity of Active Speed Control in terms of power savings. Besides achieving power savings, it is also necessary to check the economic feasibility. A detailed study is performed on the feasibility of Active Speed Control for random feeding rate according to industrial requirements. Due to the random and non-linearity of the material loading on the belt conveyor systems, a fuzzy logic algorithm is developed using the DIN 22101 model. The developed model achieves Active Speed Control based on the feeding rate and thereby optimizes the belt speed as required. This model also overcomes the risks of material spillage, overloading and sudden jerks caused due to unpredicted rise and fall during loading. The model conserves 20- 23% of the total power utilized compared to the conventional conveyor systems in use. However it is noticed that the peak power of conventional conveyor belt systems is up to 16% less compared to the proposed model. If implemented in dierent industries, based on the operational time and total consumption of electricity, the proposed Active speed control system is expected to achieve economic savings up to 10-12 % .