An adaptive control scheme for speed control of diesel driven power-plants

The performance of an incremental Clarke-Gawthrop adaptive control scheme, suitable for a diesel-engine prime mover, is described. The controller uses a predictor that is derived from explicit estimates of the plant deadtime and time constants. Its performance under speed reference changes and load disturbances has been compared to that of a fixed, tuned proportional-integral (PI) controller. The algorithm is found to operate satisfactorily under different values of droop without any additional complexity of computation being incurred. However, the improvement in plant response due to the adaptive algorithm is somewhat reduced at high droops. The effective improvement due to adaptation is also seen to be reduced under `cold oil´ conditions. However, even under such conditions, it is possible to obtain improved response as compared to the PI controller