Control of a heat exchanger using Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model

Possibility to use the Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model to design suitable controllers for heat exchanger control was studied. The controlled process was a shell-and-tube heat exchanger and its Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model was obtained using experimental data. The control objective was to keep the output temperature of the heated stream at a reference value. The controlled output is the output temperature of the heated stream - petroleum and the control input is the volumetric flow rate of the heating stream - water. Designed controllers were tested using simulations in the Matlab/Simulink environment. The simulation results confirm that designed controllers are suitable for successful control of heat exchangers. Using of the designed controllers can lead to smaller consumption of the heating medium. Comparison with classical PID control demonstrates the superiority of the proposed control especially in the case, when the controlled process is affected by disturbances.