scholarly journals Design and Implementation of a Discrete-Time Proportional Integral (PI) Controller for the Temperature Control of a Heating Pad

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 614-623
Author(s):  
Pathan Fayaz Khan ◽  
S. Sengottuvel ◽  
Rajesh Patel ◽  
K. Gireesan ◽  
R. Baskaran ◽  
...  

Contact heat evoked potentials (CHEPs) are recorded from the brain by giving thermal stimulations through heating pads kept on the surface of the skin. CHEP signals have crucial diagnostic implications in human pain activation studies. This work proposes a novel design of a digital proportional integral (PI) controller based on Arduino microcontroller with a view to explore the suitability of an electric heating pad for use as a thermode in a custom-made, cost-effective CHEP stimulator. The purpose of PI controller is to set, regulate, and deliver desired temperatures on the surface of the heating pad in a user-defined pattern. The transfer function of the heating system has been deduced using the parametric system identification method, and the design parameters of the controller have been identified using the root locus technique. The efficiency of the proposed PI controller in circumventing the well-known integrator windup problem (error in the integral term builds excessively, leading to large transients in the controller output) in tracking the reference input and the controller effort (CE) in rejecting output disturbances to maintain the set temperature of the heating pad have been found to be superior compared with the conventional PI controller and two of the existing anti-windup models.

Energies ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 611
Author(s):  
Cecilia Ciacci ◽  
Neri Banti ◽  
Vincenzo Di Naso ◽  
Frida Bazzocchi

In Italy in 2020, only 15.5% of school building heritage was retrofitted from an energy and environmental point of view. In this paper, the cost-optimal method was applied to two different school buildings belonging to the same Italian cold climate zone but characterized by different structural and technological solutions. The research aims at defining the cost-effective redevelopment solution among several ones proposed to apply to this building type. At the same time, this paper provides a critical analysis of the methodology applied, highlighting deficiencies related to a not proper evaluation of environmentally friendly retrofitting measures. In a cost-effective context, the main results show that the intervention on the heating system is more convenient than the retrofitting of the envelope. The energy saving is equal to about 35% for both considered schools. Among the different proposed requalification configurations, the adoption of PV (photovoltaic) electric generation is included. In this regard, an optimization procedure was implemented in a generative design environment to maximize energy production with reference to different design parameters. As a result, a solution with south oriented PV modules with a tilt angle of 42° and arranged in 0.7 m spaced rows proved to be the most effective.


Author(s):  
Alexander Pavlov ◽  
Igor Plohov ◽  
Sergei Drozdov ◽  
Vadim Smirnov

The objectives of the study are to analyze the transients in heated pipelines using the finite element method and the achievement of reduction of energy losses during transportation of liquids in pipelines with electric heating systems by determining the optimal operating conditions and design parameters of the pipeline and electric heating system


Author(s):  
Nikolay S. Shulaev ◽  
◽  
Valeriya V. Pryanichnikova ◽  
Ramil R. Kadyrov ◽  
Inna V. Ovsyannikova ◽  
...  

The most essential scientifific and practical task in the area of ecological safety of pipelines operation is the development and improvement of methods of purifification and restoration of oil-contaminated soils. One of the most effificient and cost effective methods is electrochemical purifification, that does not require the use of expensive chemical reagents and soil excavation. However, the consideration of non-uniform contamination of various soil sections is required. The article examines the features of the organization and technological infrastructure for electrochemical purifification of non-uniformly contaminated soils when using a single electrical energy source, a method for calculating the design parameters of the corresponding installation is proposed. Effificient purifification of non-uniformly contaminated soil when using a specifified voltage is possible through the use of different-sized electrodes. For each soil type, the amount of transmitted electric charge required for soil purifification is determined by the concentration of the contaminant. Allocation of cathodes and anodes as parallel batteries and their connection using individual buses is an effective and energy-effificient solution, since an almost-uniform electric fifield is created in an inter-electrode space, thus allowing the reduction of the interelectrode resistance of the medium.


2020 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-47
Author(s):  
Anatoliy I. Sopov ◽  
Aleksandr V. Vinogradov

In power transformers, energy losses in the form of heat are about 2 percent of their rated power, and in transformers of large power centers reach hundreds of kilowatts. Heat is dissipated into the environment and heats the street air. Therefore, there is a need to consume this thermal energy as a source of heat supply to nearby facilities. (Research purpose) To develop methods and means of using excess heat of power transformers with improvement of their cooling system design. (Materials and methods) The authors applied following methods: analysis, synthesis, comparison, monographic, mathematical and others. They analyzed various methods for consuming excess heat from power transformers. They identified suitable heat supply sources among power transformers and potential heat consumers. The authors studied the reasons for the formation of excess heat in power transformers and found ways to conserve this heat to increase the efficiency of its selection. (Results and discussion) The authors developed an improved power transformer cooling system design to combine the functions of voltage transformation and electric heating. They conducted experiments to verify the effectiveness of decisions made. A feasibility study was carried out on the implementation of the developed system using the example of the TMG-1000/10/0.4 power transformer. (Conclusions) The authors got a new way to use the excess heat of power transformers to heat the AIC facilities. It was determined that the improved design of the power transformer and its cooling system using the developed solutions made it possible to maximize the amount of heat taken off without quality loss of voltage transformation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 4057
Author(s):  
Leonardo Frizziero ◽  
Gian Maria Santi ◽  
Christian Leon-Cardenas ◽  
Giampiero Donnici ◽  
Alfredo Liverani ◽  
...  

The study of CAD (computer aided design) modeling, design and manufacturing techniques has undergone a rapid growth over the past decades. In medicine, this development mainly concerned the dental and maxillofacial sectors. Significant progress has also been made in orthopedics with pre-operative CAD simulations, printing of bone models and production of patient-specific instruments. However, the traditional procedure that formulates the surgical plan based exclusively on two-dimensional images and interventions performed without the aid of specific instruments for the patient and is currently the most used surgical technique. The production of custom-made tools for the patient, in fact, is often expensive and its use is limited to a few hospitals. The purpose of this study is to show an innovative and cost-effective procedure aimed at prototyping a custom-made surgical guide for address the cubitus varus deformity on a pediatric patient. The cutting guides were obtained through an additive manufacturing process that starts from the 3D digital model of the patient’s bone and allows to design specific models using Creo Parametric. The result is a tool that adheres perfectly to the patient’s bone and guides the surgeon during the osteotomy procedure. The low cost of the methodology described makes it worth noticing by any health institution.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farid Atry ◽  
Israel Jacob De La Rosa ◽  
Kevin R. Rarick ◽  
Ramin Pashaie

In the past decades, spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) has transformed into a widely popular imaging technology which is used in many research and clinical applications. Despite such fast growth in the field, the technology has not been readily accessible to many research laboratories either due to the cost or inflexibility of the commercially available systems or due to the lack of essential knowledge in the field of optics to develop custom-made scanners that suit specific applications. This paper aims to provide a detailed discussion on the design and development process of a typical SD-OCT scanner. The effects of multiple design parameters, for the main optical and optomechanical components, on the overall performance of the imaging system are analyzed and discussions are provided to serve as a guideline for the development of a custom SD-OCT system. While this article can be generalized for different applications, we will demonstrate the design of a SD-OCT system and representative results for in vivo brain imaging. We explain procedures to measure the axial and transversal resolutions and field of view of the system and to understand the discrepancies between the experimental and theoretical values. The specific aim of this piece is to facilitate the process of constructing custom-made SD-OCT scanners for research groups with minimum understanding of concepts in optical design and medical imaging.


Author(s):  
Kazuaki Yazawa ◽  
Yee Rui Koh ◽  
Ali Shakouri

Thermoelectric (TE) generators have a potential advantage of the wide applicable temperature range by a proper selection of materials. In contrast, a steam turbine (ST) as a Rankine cycle thermodynamic generator is limited up to more or less 630 °C for the heat source. Unlike typical waste energy recovery systems, we propose a combined system placing a TE generator on top of a ST Rankine cycle generator. This system produces an additional power from the same energy source comparing to a stand-alone steam turbine system. Fuel efficiency is essential both for the economic efficiency and the ecological friendliness, especially for the global warming concern on the carbon dioxide (CO2) emission. We report our study of the overall performance of the combined system with primarily focusing on the design parameters of thermoelectric generators. The steam temperature connecting two individual generators gives a trade-off in the system design. Too much lower the temperature reduces the ST performance and too much higher the temperature reduces the temperature difference across the TE generator hence reduces the TE performance. Based on the analytic modeling, the optimum steam temperature to be designed is found near at the maximum power design of TE generator. This optimum point changes depending on the hours-of-operation. It is because the energy conversion efficiency directly connects to the fuel consumption rate. As the result, physical upper-limit temperature of steam for ST appeared to provide the best fuel economy. We also investigated the impact of improving the figure-of-merit (ZT) of TE materials. As like generic TE engines, reduction of thermal conductivity is the most influential parameter for improvement. We also discuss the cost-performance. The combined system provides the payback per power output at the initial and also provides the significantly better energy economy [$/KWh].


2014 ◽  
Vol 532 ◽  
pp. 191-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bao Jiang Sun ◽  
Lei Su ◽  
Chao Zhang

In order to solve the problem that the big loss of no-load and the fast rise of temperature when employ the conventional silicon steel metal transformer (SSMT) in the electric heating system, we choose the amorphous metal transformer (AMMT). In this paper, firstly, we give a brief introduction of the amorphous alloy material properties and compare the no-load characteristic of the AMMT with the SSMT. Secondly, the structure of intermediate frequency heating system working principle and control strategy are introduced. Finally, extensive experiments were conducted to validate the ideas. The experiments show that the AMMT not only improve the efficiency of transformer, solve the heating problem of transformer, but also improve the stability, security and other technical performance of the system, so it is worth recommending and promoting.


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