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- Di Benedetto, M. D., et al.
(author)
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Wireless ventilation control for large-scale systems : The mining industrial case
- 2009
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In: 2009 6th IEEE Annual Communications Society Conference on Sensor, Mesh and Ad Hoc Communications and Networks Workshops. - 9781424439386
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Mining ventilation is an interesting example of a large scale system with high environmental impact where advanced control strategies can bring major improvements. Indeed, one of the first objectives of modern mining industry is to fulfill environmental specifications [1] during the ore extraction and crushing, by optimizing the energy consumption or the production of polluting agents. The mine electric consumption was 4 % of total industrial electric demand in the US in 1994 (6 % in 2007 in South Africa) and 90 % of it was related to motor system energy [2]. Another interesting figure is given in [3] where it is estimated that the savings associated with global control strategies for fluid systems (pumps, fans and compressors) represent approximately 20 % of the total manufacturing motor system energy savings. This motivates the development of new control strategies for large scale aerodynamic processes based on appropriate automation and a global consideration of the system. More specifically, the challenge in this work is focused on the mining ventilation since as much as 50 % or more of the energy consumed by the mining process may go into the ventilation (including heating the air). It is clear that investigating automatic control solutions and minimizing the amount of pumped air to save energy consumption (proportional to the cube of airflow quantity [4]) is of great environmental and industrial interest.
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2. |
- Witrant, E., et al.
(author)
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Wireless ventilation control for large-scale systems : The mining industrial case
- 2010
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In: International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control. - : Wiley. - 1049-8923 .- 1099-1239. ; 20:2, s. 226-251
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper describes a new industrial case on automation, for large-scale systems with high environmental impact: the mining ventilation control systems. Ventilation control is essential for the operation of a mine in terms of safety (CO and NO, regulation) and energy optimization. We first discuss a novel regulation architecture, highlighting the interest for a model-based control approach and the use of distributed sensing capabilities thanks to a wireless sensor network (WSN). We propose a new model for underground ventilation. The main components of the system dynamics are described with time-delays, transmission errors, energy losses and concentration profiles. Two different model-based control approaches, which can embody the complex dynamics of the system, are proposed. The first one resorts to a nonlinear model predictive control strategy (receding horizon) and aims to energy minimization, thanks to a continuous operation of the fans. The second one, based on a hybrid description of the model and fans operation, provides automatic verification of the wireless control thanks to abstraction techniques. These control strategies are compared with simulations, in terms of regulation efficiency, energy consumption and the need for computational capabilities. The industrial case description and control strategies open new vistas for the development of global system approaches that allow for the optimization of energy consumption of complex large-scale systems.
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