Proceeding of the 11th World Congress on Intelligent Control and Automation
Shenyang, China, June 29 - July 4 2014
Applications of Fuzzy-PID to the Firing Process Control
System of High-Temperature Shuttle Kiln for Zirconia-
Alumina Products
He Wang and Hongxia Xie
Tangshan Industrial Vocational Technical College
Tangshan, Hebei Province, China
wanghe_1979@163.com & xiehongxs@126.com
Abstract -We present a system to control the temperature
in the firing process of zirconia-alumina products by applying
Fuzzy-PID control algorithm. The feasibility and rationality of
the application of Fuzzy-PID technique into the control system
for firing process of the products is verified by analyzing the
parameters of the system based on the simulation results from
Matlab.
A single-chip microcomputer STC89C52 is the core of the
system. Onsite temperature measured by B-type thermocouples
are converted to DC signal in a range from 0 to 10 V by using an
AD620. After quantization via TLC2543, the digital signal is
transferred to the corresponding temperature value through
STC89C52.The control variables are generated by Fuzzy-PID
algorithm, which is converted to DC current signals varying
from 4 to 20 mA by using DAC0832. By adjusting the opening of
electric control valve, the high velocity isothermal burners WT-
100 is controlled. As a result, the temperature of the high-
temperature shuttle kiln is stabilized. This system was applied to
the gas-fired high-temperature shuttle kiln with a length of 8.6 m
in 2012 in Shennan Special Refractory Factory in Gongyi, and
the qualification rate of the products was enhanced from 92% to
98%.
Index Terms - Shuttle kiln. Zirconia-alumina products.
Temperature control. Fuzzy-PID. Single-chip microcomputer.
I. INTRODUCTION
As an advanced refractory materials, Zirconia-alumina
products are mainly used to the direct contact procedure with
liquid steel. For instance, during the manufacturing of train
steel-wheels, the liquid steel is transported to steel-casting
mould when pressure is exerted on the tundish containing
liquid steel. The tunnel transporting the liquid steel is made
from zirconia-alumina. It is required the products to be
tolerant with high temperature, high pressure and washing.
High-temperature shuttle kiln is an important batch-type high-
temperature firing equipment, which is mainly used to
produce advanced refractory materials such as zirconia-
alumina pipe. Thermal process is a typical technique in the
process of such products, in which the qualification rate
directly depends on the firing process and the temperature of
the kiln. Improving temperature control precision of shuttle
kiln is of great significance for improving production quality,
saving energy and reducing operating costs. Currently,
traditional PID control is applied in the temperature control of
shuttle kiln in China. However, the worse anti-jamming and
4441
978-1-4799-5825-2/14/$31.00 2014 IEEE
Lianwen Shi, Lina Ma and Yingguang Bai
Tangshan Industrial Vocational Technical College, 61512
PLA Troops & Beijing Satellite Navigation Center
Tangshan, Hebei Province, China & Beijing ,China
shilianws@126.com
adaptive capabilities, and the complexity of parameter setting
in traditional PID control decrease the qualification rate, so
that it cannot satisfy the requirements of modern thermal
process.
Based on analyzing the technology and control request of
shuttle kiln, Fuzzy-PID control system is designed to improve
the qualification rate of products. The fuzzy control is
combined with the traditional PID control in the Fuzzy-PID
control system. Online self-adjustment of PID parameters,
such as KPKIKD, are realized by using the fuzzy inference
approach. Consequently, besides features of the traditional
PID, such as simple and easy-operating, the fuzzy-PID system
is more flexible, adaptive and accurate. The simulation results
verified the high tracking performance and good anti-jamming
capacity of the Fuzzy-PID control technique. Therefore, it is a
feasible technique as the requirements in the firing process
and temperature control in high-temperature shuttle kiln are
fully satisfied.
II. CONFIGURATION AND PROCESS REQUIREMENTS OF
SHUTTLE KILN
A. Configuration of Shuttle Kiln
Shuttle kiln is a type of batch-type kiln, which consists of
kiln chamber and kiln car. Stuffs to be fired are put on the
kiln car and sent to kiln chamber. The kiln car and products
are pulled out of the kiln chamber after being fired and cooled.
This system was applied to the firing process of zirconia-
alumina products in gas-fired high-temperature shuttle kiln in
Shennan Special Refractory Factory in Gongyi. The shuttle
kiln is 8.6m long, 2.8m wide and1.5m high. The volume of the
kiln is 36 m3, which is spacious enough for four kiln cars. A
side-hung kiln door driven by electric track unit is located on
the kiln body at the entrance of the kiln chamber. The roof,
walls, and lining of the kiln are composed of alumina bubble
bricks. The insulation layer and the flue are formed of mullite
light-weight bricks and high-alumina bricks, respectively. As
shown in figure 1, ten WT-1000 high velocity isothermal
burners are installed up-down asymmetric along two kiln
walls with five on each wall. A thermometer hole is set on the
top of each kiln car to hold a thermocouple. Four B-type
thermocouples with double porcelain bushing and a diameter
of 0.5 wire dipole are used as shown in the schematic diagram
of the kiln in figure 1.
B. Process Requirements
The firing period of the high-temperature shuttle kiln in
Shennan Special Refractory Factory is 136h 140h. The
firing curve is shown in figure 2. During the firing process,
the inner temperature of the kiln is continuously adjusted by
the controlling system to meet the expected process
requirements.
III. CONTROL PRINCIPLE AND HARDWARE CONFIGURATION
A. Control Principle
Single-chip microprocessor is the core of the control
system. The temperature signals collected by thermocouples
are amplified and then converted to digital signals via A/D
chips. A single-chip microprocessor set these digital signals to
the corresponding temperature values. The control parameters
are generated by using Fuzzy-PID control algorithm and
converted to DC analogue current signals in the range from 4
to 20 mA through a D/A chip. So the opening of the electric
control valve is adjusted and the amount of natural gas at the
high velocity isothermal burners is controlled. Consequently,
thermocouples
refractory layer
h vel
h ig
Fig. 1 Structure of shuttle kiln.
4442
the temperature of the gas-fired high-temperature shuttle kiln
is stabilized. The inner temperature of the kiln is used as the
control variable. The configuration of the temperature control
system for gas-fired high-temperature shuttle kiln is illustrated
in figure 3.
B. Hardware Configuration
We used STC89C52 in this system, which includes a 8k-
byte rewritable flash memory and a 256-byte random access
memory (RAM). The kiln temperature of the high-temperature
shuttle kiln in an order of mV was monitored by B-type
thermocouple and converted to DC signal in the range from 0
to 10 V by AD620. The corresponding temperature values are
obtained through STC89C52 based on the 12-bit quantized
DC signal from TLC2543. The control parameters are
generated by using Fuzzy-PID control algorithm and
converted to DC analogue signals varying from 4 to 20 mA by
DAC0832. The amount of natural gas at the high velocity
isothermal burners is controlled by adjusting the opening of
the electric control valve. As a result, the temperature from the
high-temperature shuttle kiln with natural gas heating is
controlled stably. The circuit of the detection and control
theory of the single-chip is shown in figure 4.
s
ur ner
r mal b
th e
ty iso
oci
 1800
(90, 1620) (98, 1620)
1600

1400
(70, 1200)
temperature C

1200
(76 , 1200)
o

1000

800

600 (132, 600)

400
(6, 200)
200
(30, 200) (140, 20)
(0, 20)
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150
timeh

Fig. 2 The firing curve of zirconia-alumina products.

Fig. 3 The control system diagram.

4443
 C1 1 40 0 1 2 3
P1.0/T2 Vcc
2 39 3 2 34 4
P1.1/T2EX P0.0/AD0 D0 Q0 D0 PA0
3 38 4 5 33 3 5.1K
P1.2 P0.1/AD1 D1 Q1 D1 PA1
22pF 4 37 7 6 32 2
P1.3 P0.2/AD2 D2 Q2 D2 PA2
5 36 8 9 31 1 4 5 6 7
12M P1.4 P0.3/AD3 D3 Q3 D3 PA3
6 35 13 12 30 40
P1.5 P0.4/AD4 D4 Q4 D4 PA4
C2 7 34 14 15 29 39 5.1K
P1.6 P0.5/AD5 D5 Q5 D5 PA5
8 STC89C52 33 17 16 28 38
P1.7 P0.6/AD6 D6 Q6 D6 PA6
9 32 18 19 27 37 8 9 10 11
RST P0.7/AD7 D7 Q7 D7 PA7
+5V 22pF 10 31
P3.0/RXD EA
C3 11 30 1 5 18 5.1K
P3.1/TXD ALE OE RD PB0
12 29 11 36 19
P3.2/INT0 PSEN LE WR PB1
13 28 9 20 12 13 14 15
P3.3/INT1 P2.7/A15 A0 PB2
10uF 14 27 74LS373 8 21
P3.4/T0 P2.6/A14 A1 PB3
15 26 35 22 5.1K
P3.5/T1 P2.5/A13 RESET PB4
s1 16 25 6 23
P3.6/WR P2.4/A12 CS PB5
17 24 24
P3.7/RD P2.3/A11 PB6
10K 18 23 25 +5V
XTAL2 P2.2/A10 PB7
19 22
XTAL1 P2.1/A9
20 21 18 1 14
GND P2.0/A8 G1 Y0 PC0
19 2 15
G2 Y1 PC1
3 16
Y2 PC2
4 17
Y3 PC3
5 13
Y4 PC4
23 6 12
A Y5 PC5
+5V 22 7 11
B Y6 PC6
1 20 21 8 10
AIN0 Vcc C Y7 PC7
2 19 20 9
AIN1 EOC D Y8
3 18 10 8255
AIN2 I/O CLOCK Y9
4 17 11
AIN3 DATAINPUT Y10
5 16 13
AIN4 DATAOUT Y11
6 15 14
AIN5 CS Y12

dp
7 14 15

b
d

g
a
c
e
f
AIN6 REF+ Y13
8 13 16
AIN7 REF- Y14
9 12 17
AIN8 AIN10 Y15
10 11
GND AIN9
74LS154
TLC2543 +5V
+5V

0.1
0.1
Rn1 1k8
Rn2 20k8

1
2
3
4
SE G
SE G
SE G
SE G
1 16
2 15
5 4
T L P 52 1 -1

+ 3 14
6 3 1 18
- 1G 1Y1 4 13
7 2 2 16
+15V A1 1Y2 5 12
8 1 4 14
A2 1Y3 6 11
6 12
A3 1Y4 7 10
V cc
V r ef
ILE

AD620 8
A4 8 9
DI0 Rf
330 19 9
680 2G 2Y1 DI1 CS -
11 7 OP07
D A C 0 8 32

B1 2Y2 1 16 DI2 Iout1

13
B2 2Y3
5
2 15 DI3 Iout2 +
electric control valve 1
15 3
T L P 52 1 -4

B3 2Y4 3 14 WR1
17 420mA
B4 4 13 DI4 WR2
5 12 DI5 AGND
74LS244
6 11 DI6 DGND
7 10 DI7 XFER
8 9
+15V

7815

+20V
2200/50V 47/25V +5V
78H05
V cc
V r ef
I LE

0.1 0.1
0 +10V
DI0 Rf
0.1 0.1 4700/25V 0.1 47/25V 0.1 DI1 CS -
OP07
D A C 0 8 32

DI2 Iout1
2200/50V 47/25V
DI3 Iout2 +
electric control valve 10
-20V 0
WR1
7915 420mA
DI4 WR2
DI5 AGND
-15V
DI6 DGND
DI7 XFER

Fig. 4 The circuit of detection and control theory of the single-chip.

4444
 TABLE
IV. DESIGN OF THE TEMPERATURE CONTROL SYSTEM FOR FUZZY CONTROL LIST OF KD
HIGH-TEMPERATURE SHUTTLE KILN E
NB NM NS ZO PS PM PB
EC
Fuzzy-PID control strategy is used in this control system. NB PB PB PB NB NB NM NS
Based on the traditional PID, Fuzzy-PID develops a binary NM PB PB PM NM ZO PS PM
continuous functional relationship between KPKIKD and NS PB PM PM NS PM PB PB
EEC. Thus the values of KPKI and KD are self-adjusted ZO ZO ZO ZO ZO ZO ZO ZO
online according to different E and EC. Therefore, this PS PB PB PM NS PM PM PB
technique enables accurate control and better adaptive so that PM PM PS ZO NM PM PB PB
it can effectively implement the human control strategy and PB NS NM NB NB PB PB PB
experience.
E and EC are the inputs of the Fuzzy-PID controller, According to the firing process requirements of zirconia-
while KPKI and KD are the outputs. E and EC are within the alumina products produced from gas-fired high-temperature
universe of discourse of {-6,-5,-4,-3,-2,-1,0,1,2,3,4,5,6}, and shuttle kiln and the experience of operators, as well as the
KPKIKD are within the universe of discourse of {-3,-2,- related references, we set the transfer function of the
1,0,1,2,3}. {NB,NM,NS,ZO,PS,PM,PB} are the fuzzy subset temperature control system for gas-fired high-temperature
and the fuzzy membership functions is showed in the standard shuttle kiln as the following.

triangle form. The fuzzy control rules of the outputs variables
29.8  50 s
KP, KI, and KD are listed in table 1 2 and 3, respectively. G s  e (1)
683s  1

TABLE I
FUZZY CONTROL LIST OF KP
The mathematic model set up by Simulink is shown in
E figure 5 and the model of the subsystem structure is shown in
NB NM NS ZO PS PM PB
EC figure 6.
NB PB PB PM PM ZO ZO NS The control algorithm in this paper can meet the process
NM PB PB PM PM NS NS NM requirements. At any time after the temperature of the system
NS PB PM PM PS NS NM NB is stabilized at 1620, the steady state error resulting from
ZO ZO ZO ZO ZO ZO ZO ZO the disturbance signal with amplitude of 10 is within 2
PS ZO NS NS PS PM PM PB and the regulation time is quite short. The response curve is
PM NS NM ZO PM PB PB PB
showed in figure 7.

PB NM NB PS PB PB PB PB


TABLE
FUZZY CONTROL LIST OF KI
E
NB NM NS ZO PS PM PB
EC
NB PB PB PB PB NS NM NB 
NM PB PB PM PM NM NB NB Fig. 5 Simulation model of control system.
NS PB PM PS PS NB NB NB

ZO ZO ZO ZO ZO ZO ZO ZO
PS NB NB NB PS PS PM PB
PM NB NB NM PM PM PB PB
PB NB NM NS PB PB PB PB


Fig. 6 Structure of Subsystem.

4445
 Fig. 7 Response curve under the action of 10 step disturbance signal.
According to the above investigation on the whole
Fuzzy-PID control system, it can be seen that Fuzzy-PID is an
ideal temperature control approach for gas-fired high-
temperature shuttle kiln.
. CONCLUSIONS
The simulation result shows that Fuzzy-PID can get very
good effect in controlling the temperature of gas-fired high-
temperature shuttle kiln. This system had been used to a 8.6m
long gas-fired high-temperature shuttle kiln in Shennan
Special Refractory Factory in Gongyi in 2012. The maximum
systematic error is less than 2 and the qualification rate of
zirconia-alumina products is higher than 98%.
4446
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