Control system design for a mixing system with multiple inputs
AssigneeHalliburton Energy Services, Inc.
InventorsJason Dykstra, Justin Borgstadt
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A control system for mixing at least two materials in a physical system having two or more tanks comprises at least two actuators, each actuator being operable to introduce a material into a first tank to form a first mixture, the first mixture flowing into a second tank to form a second mixture and a controller operable, based on a commanded input, to control the at least two actuators to obtain a density of either the first mixture or the second mixture and a volume flow rate of the second mixture out of the second tank, wherein the density is controlled independently from the volume flow rate.
Claims57
A control system for mixing at least two materials in a physical system having two or more tanks, comprising:
- at least two actuators, each actuator being operable to introduce a material into a first tank to form a first mixture, the first mixture flowing into a second tank to form a second mixture;
- and
- a controller operable, based on a commanded input, to control the at least two actuators to obtain a density of either the first mixture or the second mixture and a volume flow rate of the second mixture out of the second tank;
- wherein the density is controlled independently from the volume flow rate.
The control system of claim 10, wherein the commanded dv12/dt is based on:
- a first error term determined by subtracting an indication of a height of the second mixture in the second tank from an operator input desired height of the second mixture in the second tank [h2 input];
- and
- an operator input desired volume flow rate of the second mixture out of the second tank [dvs/dt input].
A control system for mixing at least two materials in a tank, comprising:
- at least two actuators, each actuator being operable to introduce a material into the tank to form a mixture;
- and
- a controller operable, based on a commanded input, to control the at least two actuators to obtain a density of the mixture and a volume flow rate of the mixture out of the tank;
- wherein the density is controlled independently from the volume flow rate.
A control system for mixing at least two materials, comprising:
- a controller operable to control a physical system comprising a plurality of actuators, each actuator being operable to introduce a material into a first tank to form a first mixture;
- wherein the controller operates the actuators to control a desired characteristic of the first mixture.
A method for mixing at least two materials, comprising:
- introducing the at least two materials into a physical system;
- combining the at least two materials to form a mixture thereof;
- independently controlling a desired characteristic of the mixture of the at least two materials and a desired parameter of the physical system.
A method for mixing at least two materials, comprising:
- determining a commanded combined mass flow rate of the at least two materials into a first tank [commanded dmin/dt];
- determining a commanded combined volume flow rate of the at least two materials into the first tank [commanded dvin/dt];
- and
- independently controlling, based on the commanded dmin/dt and the commanded dvin/dt, a density of a mixture of the at least two materials in the first tank [ρ12]and a volume flow rate of the mixture out of the first tank [dv12/dt].
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.