Development of the Algorithm for Energy Efficiency Improvement of Bulk Material Transport System

Abstract

The paper presents a control strategy for the system of belt conveyors with adjustable speed drives based on the principle of optimum energy consumption. Different algorithms are developed for generating the reference speed of the system of belt conveyors in order to achieve maximum material cross section on the belts and thus reduction of required electrical drive power. Control structures presented in the paper are developed and tested on the detailed mathematical model of the drive system with the rubber belt. The performed analyses indicate that the application of the algorithm based on fuzzy logic control (FLC) which incorporates drive torque as an input variable is the proper solution. Therefore, this solution is implemented on the new variable speed belt conveyor system with remote control on an open pit mine. Results of measurements on the system prove that the applied algorithm based on fuzzy logic control provides minimum electrical energy consumption of the drive under given constraints. The paper also presents the additional analytical verification of the achieved results trough a method based on the sequential quadratic programming for finding a minimum of a nonlinear function of multiple variables under given constraints.