SBHS1: Identification of transfer function of a Single Board Heater System

throughstep response experiments

AIM:
1. To perform step test on a single board heater system
2. To identify system transfer function using step response data

About this Experiment

• Figure 1 shows the single board heater system on which this experimentwill be
performed.
• The setup consists of a heater assembly, fan, temperature sensor,
microcontrollerand associated circuitry.
• Heater assembly consists of an iron plate placed at a distance of about 3.5mm
from the nichrome coil.
• A 12 V fan positioned below this heater assembly is meant forcooling the
assembly.
• The temperature sensed by the temperature sensor, AD 590, after
suitableprocessing, is fed to the microcontroller.
• The microcontroller is the heart of the setup. It provides aninterface between the
process and the computer.
• The LCD display mounted above the microcontroller displays the heated plate
temperature, heater and fan inputs and also the commands communicated via
serial port.
• We have used Scilab and Scicos as an interface for sending and receiving data.
Scicos diagram is shown in Figure 2.
• Heater current and fan speed are the two inputs for this system. They are given
in PWM units.
• These inputs can be varied by the setting the properties of input block’s
properties in scicos.
• The plots of their amplitude versus time are also available on the scope windows.
• The output temperature profile, as read by the sensor, is also plotted.
• The data acquired in the process is stored on the local drive and is available to
the user for further calculations.

Procedure
1. Connect the SBHS to an electrical point and to a PC having SCILAB
2. Serial Port initialization:
a. Find the Port Location: Right click on My ComputerProperties
HardwareDevice ManagerPorts (COM&LPT)Serial Port (Ex. COM3)
b. Change directory to steptest: FileMenuChange
DirectoryDesktop\sbhs_inderpreeth_5-2-2011\steptest
c. Editor WindowFile MenuOpen ser_init.sce (of the directory steptest)
d. Make sure the correct port location is mentioned in the above file,
ser_init.sce, at the place mentioned in the following statement in the
above (bold, underlined)
e. com_config =
tlist(['Config';'port';'baudrate';'nbits';'parity';'stopbits';'protocol'],7,9600,8,0,0,
0);
f. ExecuteMenuLoad into Scilab
3. Open and load (Execute Menu) the file open_loop.sce in the directory steptest
4. Go to SCILAB Editor Applications Scicos
5. In the ScicosDiagram Menu  Load steptest (steptest file in the directory
steptest)
6. Mention the value of Fan speed and Heater input in the corresponding block
7. Go to Simulaterun
8. The data are stored in the file mentioned in the block: “write to output file” in
SICOS application window
9. Apply a step change of 10 units in heater current keeping fan speed constant.
10. Let the steady state be arrived
11. Apply another step change of 10 units in heater currentkeeping fan speed
constant.
12. Let the steady state be arrived
13. Assigning the data: the first column refers to Time, second-Heater, third-Fan and
fourth-Temperature. Data for first step
14. Plot the graph of the Temperature Vs time for experimental and predicted runs
15. Compute the value of steady state gain, K and the time constant τ from the plot
of T Vs time plot (recall the Process Control Class on first order process
dynamics)
2
∑𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑖=1�𝑇𝑇𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 −𝑃𝑃𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 �
16. Quantify the experimental-model mismatch error: %𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸 = 100 ∗ 2
∑𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑖=1�𝑇𝑇𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 �
17. Make all the calculations in a file with the name: SBHS1,
18. When I run the file, it should be able to generate two plots
a. Plot1: experimental Vs Predicted for step change 1
b. Plot2: experimental Vs Predicted for step change 2
c. It should print the % error for both the step changes
19. Save the file SBHS1 and plot1 and plot2 in a folder name with your group name.
e.g. Group A will make a folder of name ‘A’
20. Save this folder on DesktopSBHSSBHS1
 Figure 1: Single board heater system

Figure 2: Scicos for this experiment

Theory
Consider the system to be first order.
 𝐾𝐾
𝐺𝐺(𝑠𝑠) =
𝜏𝜏𝜏𝜏 + 1

We try to fit a first order transfer function of the form to the single board heater system.
Because the transfer function approach uses deviational variables, G(s) denotes the
Laplace transform, of the gain of the system between the change in heater current and
the change in the system temperature. Let the change in the heater current be denoted
by ∆u. We denote both the time domain and the Laplace transform variable by the same
lower case variable. Let the change in temperature be denoted by ∆y. Suppose that the
current changes by a step of size∆u. Then, we obtain the following relation between the
current and the temperature.
𝑦𝑦(𝑠𝑠) = 𝐺𝐺(𝑠𝑠)𝑢𝑢(𝑠𝑠)

𝐾𝐾 ∆𝑢𝑢
𝑦𝑦(𝑠𝑠) =
𝜏𝜏𝜏𝜏 + 1 𝑠𝑠

Note that ∆u is the height of the step and hence is a constant. On inversion, we obtain
∆𝑦𝑦 = 𝐾𝐾�1 − 𝑒𝑒 −𝑡𝑡/𝜏𝜏 �∆𝑢𝑢

In discrete form:
𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑
𝜏𝜏 + 𝑦𝑦 = 𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾
𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑
[𝑦𝑦𝑘𝑘+1 − 𝑦𝑦𝑘𝑘 ]
𝜏𝜏 + 𝑦𝑦𝑘𝑘 = 𝐾𝐾𝐾𝐾𝑘𝑘
∆𝑡𝑡
∆𝑡𝑡 𝐾𝐾∆𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑘𝑘
𝑦𝑦𝑘𝑘+1 = �1 − � 𝑦𝑦𝑘𝑘 +
𝜏𝜏 𝜏𝜏

Calculations:

• Calculate 𝜏𝜏and final value from the plotted graph and run the same scilab code
with these values. 𝜏𝜏is the time taken by the system to reach 63.2% of final value.
∆𝑦𝑦
• Obtain steady state gain, 𝐾𝐾 =
∆𝑢𝑢

• Compute the predicted values of T Vs time using K and 𝜏𝜏.

• Plot T Vs time for experimental and Predicted results

Conclusions: