Design and Comparison of Fractional-Order Controllers in Flotation Cell Banks and Flotation Columns Used in Copper Extraction Processes

Manuel A. Duarte-Mermoud (), Abdiel Ricaldi-Morales, Juan Carlos Travieso-Torres and Rafael Castro-Linares
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Manuel A. Duarte-Mermoud: Facultad de Ingeniería y Arquitectura, Universidad Central de Chile, Av. Santa Isabel 1186, Santiago 8330601, Chile
Abdiel Ricaldi-Morales: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Chile, Av. Tupper 2007, Casilla 412-3, Santiago 8370451, Chile
Juan Carlos Travieso-Torres: Department of Industrial Technologies, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, El Belloto 3735, Estación Central, Santiago 9170124, Chile
Rafael Castro-Linares: Department of Electrical Engineering, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional (CINVESTAV), Av. IPN 2508, Mexico City 07360, Mexico

Mathematics, 2024, vol. 12, issue 17, 1-23

Abstract: This work explores efficiency improvements in the copper flotation stage, a complex nonlinear, multivariable process subject to numerous perturbations. The primary objective is to design a fractional-order PID (FOPID) control strategy and a fractional-order model reference adaptive control (FOMRAC) system. The parameters for these controllers are optimized using the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm with an objective function tailored to the control goals. This study employs models of both a bank series of five flotation cells and a flotation column. Their performance results are compared against traditional controllers, such as an integer-order PID and MRAC. The findings reveal that fractional-order controllers offer notable advantages over their integer-order counterparts, showing improved performance metrics with minimal changes to the existing control framework. This research highlights the effectiveness of fractional control in enhancing flotation processes and introduces a novel application of fractional control techniques in this area.

Keywords: flotation process; fractional-order controllers; fractional-order adaptive control; PSO (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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