Fuzzy controller design for a heat exchanger

The paper presents an advanced control strategy that uses fuzzy controllers in the complex control structure with an auxiliary control input. The controlled tubular counter-current heat exchanger is used for pre-heating petroleum by hot water. The heat exchanger is modelled as a nonlinear system with the interval parametric uncertainty. The set-point tracking and the disturbance rejection using intelligent control strategies are investigated. The control objective is to keep the outlet temperature of the pre-heated petroleum at a reference value. Simulations of control of the tubular heat exchanger are done in the Matlab/Simulink environment. The complex control structure with fuzzy controllers is compared with conventional PID control, fuzzy control and complex control structure with conventional controllers. Simulation results confirm the effectiveness and superiority of the advanced control approach combining two fuzzy controllers.