ON MODELING AND THE CONTROL OF VIBROFORMERS IN ALUMINUM PRODUCTION

In this paper, an approximate model of an industrial process in a chao tic regime is considered. The incentive comes from the problem of mode lling and simulation of a vibroformer for carbon anodes in aluminium p roduction. Analysis of the physical process and empirical observations from industry provide certain conjectures about the behaviour-of a vi broformer, leading to the approximation by the bouncing ball model; an d the bouncing ball system is known to produce chaotic behaviour. This model describes well the fundamentals of the physical process and giv es insight into different possible behaviours under perturbations. Aft er modelling, we consider a way of controlling this process. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.