The measurement of viscosity in rubber mixing process based on fuzzy modeling

Viscosity is one of the key quantities in rubber mixing process, online measurement of viscosity is very difficult to achieve. To cope with this problem, a soft sensing approach based on fuzzy modeling is proposed. During fuzzy modeling, T-S fuzzy model is employed to approximate the non-linearity of rubber mixing process, an improved Gustafon-Kessel fuzzy clustering algorithm based on similarity assessing is proposed to determine the optimum number of clusters. All these techniques make the fuzzy model simple and accurate. Based on it, test on BB370 internal mixer is carried out. The results show the proposed approach provides more accurate viscosity prediction than mathematical modeling approach. Compared with laboratory measurement, the error is small and acceptable. It improves production efficiency greatly and lays down the foundation for optimal control of viscosity.