The Control of Solid Flow Rate in a Pneumatic Conveyer

The control characteristics of the solid flow rate are investigated for a pilot scale pneumatic conveyer. The experimental system is a pressure-type vertical conveyer consisting of a 20mm-I. D. and 5.6m long transport line. Under a constant air flow rate, the solid flow rate was controlled by manipulating a vibrating feeder based on the feedback of the output signal from the hand-made impact flow-meter which was set downstream of the gas-solid separator. The control system was implimented on a personal computer. Since the output signal from the impact flow-meter contained significant amounts of random noise, a Kalman filter was applied as an observer. The controller was designed based on the discrete I-PD control formula. The formula is a kind of partial model matching method developed by Kitamori. Satisfactory control performance was achieved both as a regulator and as a servo-mechanism for the pilot plant.