Intelligent optimal-setting control for grinding circuits of mineral processing process

During the operation of a grinding circuit (GC) in mineral processing plant the main purpose of control and optimal operation is to control the product quality index, namely the product particle size, into its technically desired ranges. Moreover, the grinding production rate needs to be maximized. However, due to the complex dynamic characteristics between the above two indices and the control loops, such control objectives are difficult to achieve using existing control methods. The complexity is reflected by the existence of process heavy nonlinearities, strong coupling and large time variations. As a result, the lower level loop control with human supervision is still widely used in practice. However, since the setpoints to the involved control loops cannot be accurately adjusted under the variations of the boundary conditions, the manual setpoints control cannot ensure that the actual production indices meet with technical requirements all the time. In this paper, an intelligent optimal-setting control (IOSC) approach is developed for a typical two-stage GC so as to optimize the production indices by auto-adjusting on line the setpoints of the control loops in response to the changes in boundary conditions. This IOSC approach integrates case-based reasoning (CBR) pre-setting controlling, neural network (NN)-based soft-sensor and fuzzy adjusting into one efficient control model. Although each control element is well known, their innovative combination can generate better and more reliable performance. Both industrial experiments and applications show the validity and effectiveness of the proposed IOSC approach and its bright application foreground in industrial processes with similar features. © 2006 IEEE.