The state-of-the art electromagnetic induction flow-through pipeline package type fluid heating appliance using series resonant PWM inverter with self-tuning PID controller-based feedback implementation

Abstract

This paper describes a newly-developed prototype of an electromagnetic induction flow-through metallic package-in-nonmetallic pipeline type fluid heating appliance, which is composed of a series loaded resonant phase-shift PWM invertor using IGBT modules and their intelligent driver modules, in addition to an auto-tuning PID controller incorporated into the feedback loop. This inverter-fed fluid heating appliance is more acceptable for high-quality heat energy transfer and delivery under a precise temperature control scheme, heat-energy storage and heat exchange processing plants as well as vessel and tank heating plants in the pipeline because of clean processing, high-efficiency, compactness in volumetric size, high-reliability, and best control ability. In particular, the series capacitor-compensated resonant PWM inverter system with a power factor correction and active sinewave line current-shaping functions is introduced for induction-heated pipeline fluid heating appliances in industrial, medical and consumer applications. The inherent salient features of this inverter-type fluid heating appliance are schematically presented as compared with other electrical heating schemes. Its operating characteristics in steady-state are illustrated and evaluated in experiment as well as computer simulation results. The promising applications of this fluid heating appliance are mentioned.