Optimization of control parameters of a hot cold controller by means of Simplex type methods.

This paper describes a hot/cold controller for regulating crystallization operations. The system was identified with a common method (the Broida method) and the parameters were obtained by the Ziegler-Nichols method. The paper shows that this empirical method will only allow a qualitative approach to regulation and that, in some instances, the parameters obtained are unreliable and therefore cannot be used to cancel variations between the set point and the actual values. Optimization methods were used to determine the regulation parameters and solve this identcation problem. It was found that the weighted centroid method was the best one.