An Investigation into the Application of Fuzzy Logic Control to Industrial Gas Turbines

摘要

This paper investigates the feasibility and benefits of applying fuzzy logic control (FLC) strategies for use with industrial gas turbines. Our main objective is to investigate different designs and methods, design and implement an FLC strategy, plant simulation in a test environment, optimise the FLC and conduct tests to compare the FLC with conventional controls in scenarios relevant to the application. We have designed, implemented and tested our simulation to the exhaust temperature control problem of a gas turbine problem. The FLC, plant simulation, existing control configuration and integrated test environment were developed in Java. Heuristic methods were used to optimise the FLC, which proved time consuming. The paper illustrates that while implementation of the FLC is feasible, it requires more effort than the conventional controls examined. So far, control problems on General Electric (GE) industrial gas turbines have been addressed with conventional control solutions. Whilst adequate control solutions are achieved, fuzzy logic provides an additional technology option for the control engineer. By demonstrating fuzzy logic applied in this industrial environment it is hoped that the engineers are encouraged to consider fuzzy logic for future problems.