Modelling of lateral dynamics for an endless metal process belt

摘要

The subject of this article is the derivation of a model for lateral dynamics of an endless metal process belt. The minimal configuration of a process belt is a conveyor belt around two cylindrical return drums. In order to ensure a plane surface, the metal belt is pre-stressed to a high level. The main problem of this configuration is to guarantee perfect lateral tracking of the belt utilizing swivelling and tilting drum axes, which should guarantee a constant lateral position of the belt under all process disturbances and geometric imperfections. A dynamic process model in linear state space form is derived from simple geometric parameters of the belt and drums. Measured data from a test rig are utilized to estimate a parametric grey-box model, and both analytical and experimental models are validated against experimental results. The region of validity of the linear models is evaluated and the excellent performance of the grey-box model is demonstrated. The application of this model for control design is demonstrated for compensation of a lateral process force.