Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal 23 (2020) 691–699

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Engineering Science and Technology,

an International Journal
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jestch

Full Length Article

Design and industrial implementation of fuzzy logic control of level in

soda production
Snejana Yordanova a,⇑, Branimir Gueorguiev b, Milen Slavov b
a
Technical University of Sofia, Faculty of Automation, Sofia 1000, Bulgaria
b
‘‘SolvaySodi” SA, Devnya, Bulgaria

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The linear control techniques often fail to satisfy the high standards in the control of the contemporary
Received 21 June 2019 complex plants accounting for the emerging importance of the plant nonlinearity, model uncertainty,
Revised 29 July 2019 variables coupling and disturbances from the industrial environment. The fuzzy logic controller (FLC)
Accepted 26 August 2019
successfully ensures control system stability, robustness and desired performance in the whole range
Available online 6 September 2019
of plant operation. Despite the rapid theoretical development the reported FLC industrial applications
are still only few. The aim of the present investigation is to design and implement a model-free FLC
Keywords:
for the liquid level in a carbonisation column in soda ash production using a low-cost general purpose
Carbonisation column
Level control
industrial programmable logic controller (PLC). The novelty is the design of a single-input-single-
Mamdani fuzzy logic control output FLC, the FLC transformation to enable its programming in a PLC and implementation of the
Programmable logic controller PLC-FLC for the real time control of the level in a carbonisation column in ‘‘Solvay Sodi” SA – Devnya,
Real time experimentation Bulgaria. The conducted real time experiments on the industrial plant show that the FLC system outper-
forms the existing model-based fuzzy parallel distributed control system in an increased dynamic accu-
racy and a reduced settling time.
Ó 2019 Karabuk University. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC
BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction The model-free Mamdani FLC is convenient when the informa-

The increasing standards of life demand to produce more and
more sophisticated products of high quality but also to observe
energy, market and environmental restrictions. This leads to a
growing complexity and a wide range of operation of the contem-
porary plant. The plant nonlinearity, the model uncertainty, the
variables coupling as well as the disturbances from the industrial
environment emerge as important factors that determine the con-
trol system performance. They are difficult to be accounted for by
the well-developed classical modelling and control technique. The
fuzzy logic controllers (FLC) offer advanced means for a successful
control of sophisticated plants ensuring control system stability,
robustness and desired performance in the whole range of plant
operation.
Abbreviations: CCl, carbonisation column; DCS, distributed control system; FL
(C), fuzzy logic (control/ler); FU, fuzzy unit; MF, membership function; LTI, linear
time invariant; PDC, parallel distributed compensation; PI(D), proportional-plus-
integral(-plus derivative); PLC, programmable logic controller; SISO, single-input-
single-output; TSK, Takagi-Sugeno-Kang model; ZN, Ziegler-Nichols model.
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: sty@tu-sofia.bg (S. Yordanova).
Peer review under responsibility of Karabuk University.
tion about the plant is scanty. It is built of many expert derived
fuzzy rules. The parallel distribution compensation (PDC) is based
on a derived Takagi-Sugeno-Kang (TSK) plant model [14,16]. It is
popular for its easy design using the powerful well-mastered linear
control technique for local linear controllers tuning and overall
system stability analysis. Its simple structure of a few fuzzy rules
– one for a linearization zone, facilitates the PDC programming in
industrial programmable logic controllers (PLC) for real time
implementations. The PDC has the structure of the TSK plant
model. Based on measured premise variables the same premises
recognize the location of the current operation point with respect
to a few expert defined fuzzy linearization zones. The conclusions
describe local linear controllers, designed on the basis of the TSK
local linear plant models. The PDC output is computed as a soft
blending of the local controllers’ outputs.
The control of level is a difficult task in many industrial pro-
cesses. The plant is complex, often with no self-regulation or with
an oscillatory step response. Level is a fast responding variable
which is sensitive to disturbances and measurement noise. The
produced control action for keeping the level at a desired reference
changes the inflow which causes level oscillations. Besides, the
inlet flow pressure is also affected which results in a different from
the necessary inflow flow rate. Therefore, various FLC and fuzzy

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jestch.2019.08.005
2215-0986/Ó 2019 Karabuk University. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
692 S. Yordanova et al. / Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal 23 (2020) 691–699
gain schedulers are developed for level control [1,6,11,7,17,16].
Fuzzy logic (FL) is frequently complemented by optimization
applying genetic algorithms for off-line tuning using nonlinear
plant models and simulations. Different applications of FL level
control for industrial processes in boilers, nuclear generators,
tanks, etc. are reported based on simulation [9] and real time
experiments [2,3,12,13]. Though first steps in using of low-cost
PLC or microcontrollers are demonstrated [2], the real time exper-
iments remain still far from the industrial environment being con-
ducted as laboratory tests for the control of plant models.
The control of the level of the ammonia brine solution in a car-
bonisation column (CCl) for the production of soda ash is of great
importance for the overall production performance [15]. It is a
complex task as the reference for the level changes depending on
the solution produced [19]. For each reference and mode of opera-
tion – operation or washing, the linear plant model has different
parameters. Besides, the control action upon the inflow flow rate
of the solution causes changes in the inlet flow pressure P thus
influencing the desired supply according to the computed control
action. The other disturbances on the level come from the counter-
flow of the gases used in the reaction and the release of the final
product – the sodium bicarbonate crystals suspension, by the con-
trol valve at the bottom of the CCl.
A TSK plant model-based PDC for the control of the level in a CCl
in ‘‘Solvay Sodi” SA in the town of Devnya, Bulgaria developed in
[19] has been introduced in regular operation. Its algorithm is exe-
cuted by the existing PLC which does not support FL. The PDC
increases the system dynamic accuracy compared to the previous
linear PI control system, optimized by the means of the Distributed
Control System (DCS) [4]. It also reduces the control variance
which causes an intensive wearing out of the expensive final con-
trol elements. However, the implementation of PDC to the rest of
the CCl that operate in parallel keeping a constant ratio 3:1 for col-
umns in operation and in washing modes, is difficult. The reason is
that the individual PDC design for each CCl starting with the plant
TSK modelling, the tuning of the many parameters of the local lin-
ear PI controllers and ending with the PLC completion of the PDC, is
expensive, time-consuming and needs a highly qualified staff and
specialized software. Besides, the FLC-PDC testing and tracing also
lacks simplicity and transparency.
And hence, the aim of the present paper is to design a simple
and suitable for industrial application Mamdani FLC and to imple-
ment it for the control of the level of the ammonia brine solution in
a CCl using the existing Honeywell PLC of Experion DCS. The pur-
pose is to further improve the control system performance and
simplify the FLC design and its PLC implementation which will
enable fast development and introduction of FLC to all CCl. The
novelty concludes in the suggested single-input–single-output
(SISO) FLC, simple model-free FLC design, transformation of the
membership functions (MF) and the fuzzy rules into ordinary logic
conditions to facilitate the FLC programming in a general purpose
industrial PLC which does not support FL and the industrial appli-
cation of the PLC-FLC (PLC running FLC) for the real time control of
the level in ‘‘Solvay Sodi” SA – Devnya, Bulgaria. The FLC simple
structure and hence algorithm with a few tuning parameters
ensures fast computations and consumes small memory which
makes it suitable for real time control. The improvements achieved
are assessed from the real time PLC-FLC control in comparison to
the existing PLC-PDC level control.
The investigation is carried out by the help of MATLABTM in tun-
ing and graphical representations, its Fuzzy logic toolbox [5] for
the FLC design and Honeywell PLC of Experion DCS [4]. The final
control elements, sensors, transducers, noise filters, etc. are the
same as the used in the PLC-PDC system and are described in
[19]. The difference is the new FLC algorithm which is programmed
in the same PLC using the PLC languages and constructs.
The further organization of the paper is the following. Section 2
describes the design of the SISO FLC. In Section 3 a PLC implemen-
tation of the FLC is suggested. Section 4 presents the real time
investigation of the Honeywell PLC-FLC control system for the level
of the ammonia brine solution in the carbonisation column and the
assessment of the system performance in comparison to the per-
formance of the present PLC-PDC control system. The conclusion
and the future research are discussed in Section 5.
2. Design of a PI SISO FLC for the solution level in a CCl
The block diagram of the suggested PI SISO FLC is depicted in
Fig. 1. It consists of an exponential noise filter for the measured
plant output – the level H of the ammonia brine solution, pre-
sented by the transfer function Wf(s) = (Tf.s + 1)
1, with Tf = 0.2 -
min, a normalization gain Ke for the system error e = Hr
H,
where Hr is the reference for the level H, a fuzzy unit (FU) and a
PI post-processing. The SISO FU performs a static nonlinear map-
ping of the normalised error en into the FU normalised output on
where the normalisation is in the range [
1, 1]. The PI post-
processing algorithm is described by the transfer function CPI(s)
= Kp + 1/Tis. It comprises two parallel components – a proportional
R
with output uP(t) = Kp.on and an integral uI(t) = (1/Ti) ondt where
the gain Kp and the integration time constant Ti (Ki = 1/Ti) are the
tuning parameters. The PI post-processing determines the SISO
FLC algorithm – a nonlinear PI with uPI(t) = uP(t) + uI(t). No deriva-
tive term is included for its approximate computing, high noise
sensitivity and difficult tuning. The signals e, Hr, H and the control
actions uPI, uP, uI are presented in the range [0, 100] %. For
technological reasons the CCl operates with H in the range
[30, 80] % and the frequently used references Hr take values in
the range [35, 65]%.
The design of the FLC concludes in: 1) design of the FU by deter-
mining of the MF for the FU input and output and of the fuzzy rules
and computing of the normalisation gain and 2) tuning of the
parameters of the PI post-processing.
2.1. Design of the FU
The FU input MF are 5 orthogonal trapezoidal and triangle, pre-
sented in Fig. 2. They are standard expert based with economical
computational representation, commonly used when the informa-
tion about the plant is small. The FU output MF are 5 singletons at
[
1 (NG)
0.8 (N) 0 (Z) 0.8 (P) 1 (PG)], shown in the fuzzy rules
conclusions in Fig. 2, where N denotes ‘‘Negative”, P – ‘‘Positive”,
G – ‘‘Great” and Z – ‘‘Zero”. The choice of singletons for the output
MF aims at facilitating a PLC implementation of the FLC by simpli-
fying the MF description in the PLC memory and the
defuzzyfication.
The SISO FU reduces the number of the fuzzy rules to the num-
ber of the input MF and assists their design using the relationship
Fig. 1. Block diagram of a PI SISO FLC.
 S. Yordanova et al. / Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal 23 (2020) 691–699 693

Fig. 2. FU membership functions, fuzzy rules, control curve.

on = f(en) that leads to a zero error. The fuzzy rules are presented in
Fig. 2, e.g. the first fuzzy rule is the following:
R1 : IF en is m1 ði:e: NGÞTHEN on is
1 ðNGÞ:
The negative great (NG) error means that HHr and the control
action should be directed towards decreasing of the level by reduc-
ing the inflow to the CCl. This is achieved for on = NG which after
the PI post-processing leads to a reduced control action. The plant
nonlinearity [19] pre-determines a nonlinear controller. The FU
introduces the required proper nonlinearity between en and on so
that the closed loop system improves its performance. The com-
puted nonlinear control curve is presented in Fig. 2. It is time-
invariant and sector bounded between the lines with angular gains
K = 4 and r = 1.
The normalization gain Ke is computed on the basis of the
assumed maximal absolute value for the error |e|max = 20%
which corresponds to the maximal observed change of the ref-
erence DHr=±20% during the operation of the CCl. Thus
Ke = 1/20.
2.2. Tuning of the parameters of the PI post-processing
The tuning of Kp and Ti depending on the staff experience, pro-
gramming skills, available software and theoretical background
694 S. Yordanova et al. / Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal 23 (2020) 691–699
can be based on the following empirical and theoretical
approaches.
1. Tuning of Kp and Ti using expert knowledge and heuristic
considerations
The idea is to determine approximate values for Kp and Ti on the
basis of the ranges of the signals and the requirements for system
stability and fast response with no steady state error to reference
change and disturbances.
From expert information the initial steady state with e(0) = 0 for
the most typical reference Hr = 50% determines an initial value of
the control action uPI(0) = 50%. Since uP(0) = Kp.e(0) = 0%, the initial
value of the integrator is uI(0) = 50%.
For keeping H = Hr with steady state error e(1) = 0 at the fre-
quently used references Hr 2 [35, 65] %, the settled values of the
control action uPI(1) have to be in the same range. Since uPI = uI
for e = 0 then uI 2 [35,65]%. The gain Kp is effective only in transient
responses when e(t) – 0. Then the component uP complements the
component uI to form uPI 2 [0, 100]%, i.e. uP 2 [30, 80]% including
transient responses. Considering that Kp is a denormalization factor
which turns the FU output on 2 [
1, 1] into a control action uP = Kp.
on in the range [30, 80]%, proper values for Kp can be selected in the
same range – from Kp = 30% for slow transient responses and
greater sensitivity to disturbances to Kp = 80% for fast transient
responses and good rejection of disturbances. Here it is accepted
that Kp = 80%.
The integration time constant Ti is computed form empirical
tuning methods [10,18] as function of the expert estimated plant
time constant T  200 s – Ti = (0.3  1.6)T = 60 s  320 s. Here a
value about the middle of the range is accepted Ti = 132 s.
2. Tuning of Kp and Ti based on SISO FLC system stability and
robustness criteria derived in [18]
The method combines the Popov’s conditions for stability of a
nonlinear closed loop system with the robustness criteria, defined
for linear systems in [8].
First the FLC system is transformed into a Popov system which
consists of a time invariant static nonlinearity bounded in a sector
and a linear time invariant (LTI) stable dynamic part. The sector is
determined by the abscissa and a line via the origin defined by the
steepest slope of the nonlinear static characteristic. In the FLC sys-
tem the static part comprises the SISO FU of the FLC which nonlin-
ear characteristic is enclosed between the abscissa and the line,
defined by K in the control curve in Fig. 2. The dynamic part in this
case includes a linear nominal plant model P°(s) and the dynamic
FLC post-processing – the PI algorithm CPI(s) in series, [P°(s).CPI(s)].
The real plant model is often unknown, nonlinear and complex.
It is assumed to be represented by a linear nominal plant model
and a model uncertainty, both assessed by experts. The widely
spread Ziegler-Nichols (ZN) model is suggested for the nominal
plant description. The reason is that it has a simple transfer
function
PðsÞ ¼ k:expð
ssÞ=ðTs þ 1Þ
with parameters of clear physical meaning – the plant gain k, time
constant T and time delay s, which can easily be assessed by
experts. Besides, it successfully approximates the dynamic beha-
viour of the majority of industrial plants. The parameters of the
nominal plant model P°(s) are denoted as (k°, T°, s°).
The model uncertainty is defined as multiplicative
lðsÞ ¼ ½Pv ðsÞ
Po ðsÞ=Po ðsÞ;
where the varied plant model Pv(s) accounts for the most unfavour-
able changes of the plant parameters (kv, Tv, sv), e.g. Dk = kv2

k° > 0, DT = Tv
T° < 0, Ds = sv
s° > 0 with respect to the closed
loop system stability [8,18]). Thus the unknown plant is repre-
sented by a family of models, defined by the couple [P°(s), l(s] with
P°(s) – the most probable linear model for the basic operation point,
and l(s) – shaping the bounds around P°(s). In the frequency domain
|l(jx)| determines the radiuses of the disks around each point of the
nominal plant Nyquist plot P°(jxi) for a given frequency xi. The
Nyquist characteristic for xi [Real P(jxi), Imaginary P(jxi)] of the
real plant is located within the corresponding disk for that fre-
quency. So, the robust stability criterion should be satisfied for all
possible plants, i.e. for the nominal plant with the overlaid uncer-
tainty disks for all significant frequencies.
The dynamic part [P°(s).CPI(s)] is not stable because of
the integrating component in CPI(s). Therefore, it is first
stabilised by introducing a local feedback to it with a gain
r – Ps(s) = P°(s).CPI(s)/[1 + r.P°(s).CPI(s)]. This change in the FLC
closed loop structure is compensated by a parallel gain r to the
FU which results in a higher restriction to the location of the SISO
FLC control curve. The nonlinearity has to be bounded within a
narrower sector, determined by the lines with angular gains K
and r in Fig. 2, K > r.
This equivalently transformed FLC closed loop system enables
the application of the Popov stability criterion modified with the
Morari robustness considerations [8] by accounting for the nomi-
nal plant model with the overlaid uncertainty disks on it. As a
result the robust stability criterion states that the FLC system is
robustly stable if the Nyquist plot
Pm ðjxÞ ¼ Real½Ps ðjxÞ þ jx:Imaginary½Ps ðjxÞ
of the modified stabilised dynamic part for nominal plant model
with overlaid uncertainty disks is located to the right and below
the Popov’s line drawn through the point (
1/Kc, j0), where
Kc = K
r.
Thus the tuning of Kp and Ti of the SISO FLC for the designed FU
with the determined (K, r) in Fig. 2 consists of the following steps.
Initial data – expert assessment of the approximate nominal
and varied ZN plant model parameters and the ranges for Kp and Ti
1. Estimate the significant frequency range Dx = [0.1xo, 10xo],
xo = 2p/T° and compute a vector of discrete values for the fre-
quency in the determined range
2. Compute vectors of discrete values for Kp and Ti in the defined
ranges
3. For each combination of values for Kp and Ti:
3.1. Compute the Nyquist plot Ps(jx), x 2 Dx, of the sta-
bilised linear part and check if it is stable for this value of r
according to the Nyquist stability criterion. If Ps(jx) is not
stable, i.e. Ps(jx) crosses the real axes on the left of the
Nyquist point (
1, j0), go to the next couple of tuning
parameters Kp and Ti.
3.2. Compute the Nyquist plot Pm(jx), x 2 Dx, for the stable
Ps(jx) and check if it is robustly stable according to the mod-
ified Popov-Morari robust stability criterion. If Pm(jx) is not
robustly stable, i.e. if Pm(jx) for nominal or worst varied
plant model crosses the Popov’s line drawn through the
point (
1/Kc, j0), go to the next couple of tuning parameters
Kp and Ti.
3.3. Memorize the parameters Kp and Ti that satisfy steps 3.1
and 3.2.
4. Select the optimal couple (Kp, Ti) from additional criterion, e.g.
for good disturbance rejection Kp = max.
The robust performance criterion is defined for linear systems
as minimization of the worst system error for some frequency
and some plant model from the family [8]. For the FLC nonlinear
system this is applied after the FU control curve is linearised. The
 S. Yordanova et al. / Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal 23 (2020) 691–699 695

robust performance criterion includes the robust stability condi-
tion. It sets stronger requirements to the closed loop system not
only to remain stable at varied plant parameters, defined by the
plant model uncertainty, but also to preserve its performance indi-
cators within acceptable tolerances about the performance of the
system with nominal plant.
In Fig. 3(a) it can be seen that for Kp = 80% (the maximal possi-
ble) and Ti = 132 s the robust stability criterion is satisfied since
Pm(jx) for nominal and varied plant are located on the right and
below the line of Popov. The presented in Fig. 3(b) robust stability
curve for the system with the nonlinear FU and robust perfor-
mance curve for the system with the linearised FU are below 1
for the significant frequency range, which shows that the closed
loop FLC system is robust.
3. PLC implementation of the designed PI SISO FLC for the level
of ammonia brine solution
The industrial implementation of the designed PI SISO FLC is
based on the existing PLC of the Experion DCS which is used for
the control in all soda ash production processes. The PLC does
not support FL and therefore the MF and the fuzzy rules of the
FU have to be transformed into ordinary logic expressions. For that
purpose the following approach is suggested.
In Fig. 2 the normalised universe of discourse of the MF is
divided into 6 zones, determined by the FU MF. When a given input
en falls in zone z, z = 1  (i + 1) all MF mi, i = 1  5 can be computed
as equal to 1 or 0 or from the mathematical equation mi = ai.en + bi
of the corresponding lines l1  l8, that comprise the MF in the zone.
For instance, if en falls in zone 2 m1 is computed from the equation
m1 = a1.en + b1 for l1 where a1 =
5 and b1 =
1, m2 is computed
from the equation for l2 and m3 = m4 = m5 = 0. The logic conditions
that determine the zones as functions of en and the expressions for
evaluation of all MF m1  m5 are shown in Table 1.
For a measured level Hk in discrete time tk the normalised error
enk is computed as enk = Ke.(Hrk
Hk). For it all logic conditions are
checked. The one that is satisfied indicates the zone where enk falls.
Then the degrees mi of matching of enk to all defined MF for this zone
in Table 1 are computed. Usually 1 or 2 adjacent MF have nonzero
values.
The fuzzy rules from Fig. 2 are presented in Table 2. The final
defuzzyfied output is computed using the discrete centre of gravity
method:
m1 :ð
1Þ þ m2 :ð
0:8Þþm3 :ð0Þ þ m4 :ð0:8Þ þ m5 :ð1Þ
on ¼
m1 þ m2 þm3 þ m4 þ m5
P
For SISO FU and orthogonal input MF 5i¼1 mi ¼ 1.
The rest of the components of the PI SISO FLC in Fig. 1 – the
exponential filter of measurement noise, the gains and the

Fig. 3. FLC system: Nyquist plot Pm(jx) (a); robust stability and robust performance curves (b).

Table 1
Computation of MF for a given measurement.

Recognition of zones m1z m2z m3z m4z m5z

depending on en and MF

1<=en <
0.4 (z = 1) m11 = 1 m21 = 0 m31 = 0 m41 = 0 m51 = 0

0.4<=en <
0.2 (z = 2) m12 =
5en
1 m22 = 5en + 2 m32 = 0 m42 = 0 m52 = 0

0.2<=en < 0 (z = 3) m13 = 0 m23 =
5en m33 = 5en + 1 m43 = 0 m53 = 0
0<=en < 0.2 (z = 4) m14 = 0 m24 = 0 m34 =
5en + 1 m44 = 5en m54 = 0
0.2<=en < 0.4 (z = 5) m15 = 0 m25 = 0 m35 = 0 m45 =
5en + 2 m55 = 5en
1
0.4<=en<=1 (z = 6) m16 = 0 m26 = 0 m36 = 0 m46 = 0 m56 = 1

Table 2
Fuzzy rules of the SISO FU.

en) m1 m2 m3 m4 m5
on)
1 (NG)
0.8(N) 0 (Z) 0.8 (P) 1 (PG)
696 S. Yordanova et al. / Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal 23 (2020) 691–699

integrator or the whole PI algorithm in the post-processing, are support the development of FL since all industrial PLC have facili-
embedded in existing PLC functional blocks. The sample period is ties for arithmetic and ordinary logic operations as well as different
Dt = 1 s and is determined from the expert estimated plant time PID controllers and noise filters. The programming languages are
constant Dt  0.1 T [10,18]. All time parameters are turned into similar and based on the existing standards. The differences are
minutes. in the available functional blocks, the developing environment
Thus the FLC algorithm implemented in the PLC is simpler – and the supervisory system. The suggested transformation of the
instead of 3 PI controllers of the existing PLC-PDC, the PLC-FLC uses MF and the fuzzy rules into arithmetic and ordinary logic opera-
one. The FU of the PDC has 3 MF, represented by the lines in 4 tions not only enables low-cost industrial FL implementation but
zones while the FU of the FLC has two more zones for the descrip- also saves computational resources. It is facilitated and also limited
tion of 5 MF which increases only a little the number of algebraic by the choice of the most commonly used triangle and trapezoidal
computations. MF as well as the SISO FLC structure. The transformation can be
The FLC algorithm is programmed in the existing PLC of the applied for the PLC implementation of FLC of other variables as
Experion DCS using the development environment ‘‘Control well. More MF and two-input FLC may be needed in case of higher
Studio”. plant nonlinearity. Embedded techniques and field programmable
The design of the PDC accounts for the tuning of totally 6 tuning gate array can be programmed to perform FLC for specific applica-
parameters against 2 parameters of the FLC. Besides, the FLC design tions and fast variables, e.g. velocity of a car, where the time
is not bound to a plant mathematical model unlike the PDC which response is critical. The suggested simplifying transformation in
design requires a preliminary derived TSK plant model – extra that case is even of greater importance. However, the PLC imple-
work, use of highly qualified staff and specialised software. mentation of FLC offers a universal industrial solution which can
For each discrete time tk, defined by the sample period Dt, the apply to a variety of processes at no specific and sophisticated pro-
following cycle is performed: gramming skills. The contemporary PLC are armed with diverse
- Reading of the current level Hk, measured by the help of the functionality and already programmed user friendly blocks and
microwave radar transducer with unified output of 4  20, mA solutions that comply with the real-time and the industrial envi-
for H in the range [0.5, 3], m. The radar transducer consists of a ronment requirements thus enabling the fast development of
mounted on the top of the column transmitter type VEGAPULS industrial applications.
52 K and a radar antenna inside the column. The radar transducer’s
output is passed to the analog input of the DCS Honeywell Experian
4. Investigation of the PLC-FLC system in real time control of the
Process Knowledge System [4], the measured level in the DCS is in
the range [0, 100] %. It is filtered from noise, tested for reliability level of ammonia brine solution
and indicated on the operator’s screen;
- Computation and normalisation of the system error ek; The PLC implementation of the developed PI SISO FLC is tested
in industrial environment for the real time control of the level of
- Computation of MF and FU output onk ;
- Computation of the current FLC output uPIk by PI post- the ammonia brine solution in one of the CCl in ‘‘Solvay Sodi” SA
in the town of Devnya, Bulgaria. The experiments are designed to
processing of onk using an integrator and an algebraic functional
blocks with the obtained tuning parameters and assigned anti- enable the assessment of the FLC closed loop system performance
indicators at level reference stepwise changes in the sequence 50-
wind-up settings;
- Passing of uPIk2(0, 100)% via the analog output of the PLC to 60-50-40-50% accounting also for the inflow pressure P, barG, as a
the final control elements, i.e. to the instrumentation air for driving main disturbance. The performance indicators considered are:
of the double acting pneumatic cylinder, which turns the butterfly
valve DN150 type LW7LBAA150 on 90 degrees through intelligent - Overshoot r,%, settling time ts,min, control action maximal
positioner, powered by the signal line 4–20, mA. span DUmax and mean value Umean;
The display, the archiving and the export of data in different for- - The average dynamic accuracy in a point
mats and sampling periods is performed by the ASPEN supervisory
system – the Manufacturing and Executive System from the second 1 XN
F¼ e2 ð1Þ
information level (https://www.aspentech.com/en/products/msc/ N k¼0 k
aspen-infoplus21).
The programming code for the Honeywell PLC of Experion that where N is the sample size – the number of measurements at time
performs the FLC algorithm is developed using functional block tk = k.Dt, k = 0  N. The accuracy is greater when the value for F is
diagrams and illustrated in Fig. 4. The input block DACA scales smaller;
the input from [4,20] mA into [0,100] %. The classical PID controller  
- The relative control variance D, defined as the variance D HUr
PID-PLA is used for an interface and face plate on the operator’s
screen, generation of the system error, loading of the initial value of the control action U = uPI relative to the reference Hr per a unit
of Integrator 2, operation in ‘‘Manual mode” and switching variance DðP Þ of the pressure P
between PDC and FLC. The numerical block A and the multiplica-
tion block MULA perform system error normalisation. FLC_IN1 is  
a signal limiter in the range [
1, 1]. The FU functions fuzzyfication D HUr
and defuzzyfication are performed by UCA2K01A where the MF D¼ ð2Þ
DðPÞ
and the fuzzy rules are stored. The FU output on, denoted as dun
feeds INTEGRATOR_2 that integrates the input P[1] = dun. The inte-   N h
P  i2 P
N
with D U
¼ N1 Uk

M U
and DðP Þ ¼ N1 ½P k
M ðP k Þ2 ,
grator initial value is provided as P[2]. In the calculating block Hr
k¼0
Hrk Hr
k¼0
AUXCALCA P[1], which is the FU output, is multiplied by a constant   P P
where M HUr ¼ N1 Nk¼0 HUk and MðP Þ ¼ N1 Nk¼0 Pk are the estimates
(Kp) and the product is summarized with P[4] – the integrator out- rk
U
put to yield the FLC output. SWITCHA –switches to the output of of the mathematical expectations for Hr
and P respectively: The
PID in ‘‘Manual mode”. greater value for D shows a greater degree of wearing and a shorter
The suggested modification of the FLC algorithm can easily be lifetime of the expensive final control elements (valve and
programmed in any PLC which does not have specific tools that actuator);
 S. Yordanova et al. / Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal 23 (2020) 691–699 697

Fig. 4. PLC Experion programming code for FLC as functional block diagram.

- The total accumulated control action relative to its maximal - The total accumulated control action per unit of reference Hr
value Umax = 100% relative to Umax = 100%

1 X N
Uk
1 X N
IUr ¼ ð4Þ
IU ¼ Uk ð3Þ 100 k¼0 Hrk
100 k¼0
698 S. Yordanova et al. / Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal 23 (2020) 691–699

Indicators (3) and (4) assess the consumption of energy for con-
trol. For greater IU and IUr more control action is required.
Two PI SISO FLC systems are investigated – PI SISO FLC system 1
with the computed tuning parameters Kp = 80%, Ti = 132 s and PI
SISO FLC system 2 with Kp = 55%, Ti = 300 s. The decrease only of
Kp results in an increased overshoot and a decreased accuracy.
The control action has an increased variance and changes with
lower frequency. The variance of the control action is slightly
reduced by increasing of Ti to 300 s at the expense of a little
increase of the frequency with which the control oscillates. The
step responses of the level H(t) and the control action U(t) of the
two systems are exported as Excel data from ASPEN and repre-
sented using MATLABTM in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6 respectively. In each fig-
ure for comparison are added the step responses of the existing PI
PDC level control system, developed in [19]. The performance indi-
cators for the three systems are assessed and systemised in Table 3
where the best indicators are highlighted in grey and the second
good – in blue.
The comparative analysis of the performance indicators (1) 
(4) shows that the PI SISO FLC system 1 ensures the most accu-
rate level control. The variance of the control action and the
accumulated control effort are the smallest in the PI PDC system.
The assessed performance of the PI SISO FLC system 2 is
between the performances of the PI PDC and the PI SISO FLC sys-
tem 1. System 1 has the smallest overshoot and settling time
and is second in maximal control span which rates it as the best
system.
The structure and the design of the PI SISO FLC system 1 are
simple and expert based using only scanty information about the
plant.
This greatly facilitates the PLC implementation and the mainte-
nance. No specialised software or highly qualified staff is required.

Fig. 5. Step responses of the PI SISO FLC system with tuned parameters against the step responses of the present PI PDC system.

Fig. 6. Step responses of the PI SISO FLC system with different from the tuned parameters against the step responses of the present PI PDC system.
 S. Yordanova et al. / Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal 23 (2020) 691–699
Table 3
Performance assessment of the systems.
5. Conclusion and future research
The main contributions of the present research conclude to the
following.
A PI SISO FLC is developed for the control of the level of the
ammonia brine solution in a carbonisation column in the plant
for the production of soda ash. It complies with the requirements
and the restrictions for implementation using the existing PLC for
real time control. The FLC has the normalised system error as a sin-
gle input to the fuzzy unit. This saves the computation of a second
input which usually is the noise sensitive in industrial environ-
ment rate of error. Besides, the number of the rules is greatly
reduced and the rules are easily defined. The post-processing is a
PI algorithm with two independent tuning parameters which is
an available PLC functional block. As a result the computational
resources (memory and processor time) required are small which
makes the FLC algorithm suitable for real time PLC control. The
design is simple, easy to perform by practicing engineers and based
on scanty expert knowledge about the plant. It can use either
empirical methods or robust stability or robust performance
conditions.
A transformation of the fuzzy rules and the membership func-
tions into ordinary logic conditions is suggested to enable easy pro-
gramming of the designed PI SISO FLC algorithm in an industrial
general purpose PLC of the Experion DCS which does not support
fuzzy logic. This approach can be applied to the FLC for different
variables using various PLC or embedded techniques. The use of
trapezoidal and triangle MF cannot be considered a limitation as
these MF are the most commonly used in practice. It has not been
reported for significant improvements in control and modelling
due to more sophisticated shapes for the MF.
The PLC-FLC is implemented for the real time stabilising control
of the level of the ammonia brine solution in a carbonisation col-
umn in ‘‘Solvay Sodi” SA – Devnya, Bulgaria. It has been included
in a short term operation several times for over an year. The con-
ducted experiments in industrial environment for different refer-
ences show that the PLC-FLC system outperforms the existing
PLC-PDC system not only in the simple algorithm and expert based
design but also in the reduced more than twice system error and
settling time.
699
The idea has been further developed and tested for a two-input
fuzzy unit and different types of post-processing. The real time
industrial experiments outline as important a future research on
the reduction of the impact of the measurement noise and the
disturbances.
6. Funding and declaration of interest
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding
agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests of any
kind and consent this final version of the manuscript to be submit-
ted for publication. The manuscript is an original unpublished
research work and is not under consideration for publication
elsewhere.
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