Minerals Engineering, Vol. 11, No. 8, pp.

739-748, 1998

Pergamon 0892,-6875(98)00059-4

1998 Elsevier Science Ltd All fights reserved 0892-6875/98/$ - see front matter

FUZZY SUPERVISORY CONTROL OF FLOTATION COLUMNS

L.G. BERGH, J.B. YIANATOS and C.A. LEIVA

Chemical Engineering Department, Santa Maria University, Valparaiso, Chile E-mail: lbergh @itata.disca.utfsm.cl (Received 4 February 1998; accepted 18 May 1998)

ABSTRACT The application of fuzzy logic to supervise a distributed basic control in a flotation column is discussed. The control strategies were studied and tested in a dynamic simulator of the process. Two control strategies were developed and tested to manage three basic distributed controllers: an expert supervisor, mainly based on rules following a binary logic, and a fuzzy supervisor. The objective function to be optimized was to keep the concentrate grade in a high band, subject to maintaining the process recovery over a minimum value. The supervisor takes into account the present state of the gas flowrate, the froth depth and the wash water flowrate, to make a decision. Simulated results are discussed. 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords Column Flotation, Artificial Intelligence, Expert Systems, Process Control

INTRODUCTION
Flotation columns are now used worldwide as efficient cleaning stages in a large number of sulfide mineral concentrators. More degrees of freedom in their operating variables have led to large variations in metallurgical performance and therefore to much scope for improving their control. In this process, stable operation and consequent consistent metallurgical benefits can only be obtained if basic distributed control systems are implemented. In Figure 1 a representation of a typical flotation column instrumentation and control system is shown. In general, at least wash water and air flowrates and froth depth are measured on line, and tailings, air and wash water flowrates are manipulated. On line analysers, tailings and feed flowrates and some other measurements are often incorporated into the system when a supervisory control strategy is implemented on top of a distributed control system. The primary objectives, as indices of process productivity and product quality, are the recovery and the concentrate grade. However, their on-line estimation usually requires a significant amount of work in maintenance and calibration of on-stream analysers, in order to maintain good accuracy and high availability. Therefore, it is common practice to control secondary objectives, such as the froth depth, the

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gas flowrate and the washwater flowrate [1]. This control is known as a stabilizing strategy. Obtaining accurate measurements, nonlinear dynamics and high interaction among variables are some of the main problems associated with stabilizing control. These characteristics reduce the effectiveness of conventional PID control without a supervisor to coordinate the control loops.

wash water

~ .

feed

air

(~--

--

concentrate

_Y

tailing

OT
Fig. 1 Flotation column instrumentation and control system.
EXPERT AND FUZZY SUPERVISORS

A control strategy is defined in terms of how the achievement of some selected objectives will be attempted under the constraints imposed by the process itself, the quality of the available information, and the mathematical tools and support available. The well known PID control and any other advanced model-based technique are classical examples of algorithmic control. More recently, the use of logic rules, emulating operator thinking, has developed from off-line helping systems to truly on-line applications. The latter is known as heuristic control. In practice, heuristic control approaches, based on different techniques, have been implemented on flotation columns. Expert systems applications have been reported in at least two plants [2,3]. Fuzzy logic control systems have been implemented and evaluated in Japan [4], in Portugal [5] and in Chile [6]. Hierarchical control is supervision on top of the control system and its main goal is to increase the operating availability of the process under control. To achieve this, the control manager should coordinate the actions of the distributed controllers according to the evolution of the process variables and some specific logic rules or functional relationships among them. The integration of algorithmic and heuristic tools in a strategy is heavily based on experimental evidence obtained from plant operation. This integration requires the development of software to support the strategy in the working computational environment [7]. Contributions to improve the overall performance of the supervised system mainly come from on time detection of instrumental and operating problems and coordination and management of local control loops.
Instrumental Problems Detection

The main problem is to differentiate between expected changes in some process variable and the failure of the sensor measuring it. Statistics, history and process knowledge constitute the basis of inference to decide when a sensor has a failure or when a justifiable abrupt change in the estimated variable occurred. Furthermore, in case of failure detection, it is wise to allow the supervisor to select a second or third

Fuzzy supervisorycontrolof flotationcolumns

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estimation of the variable, using predictive models based on the kind of information still available [7]. A second estimation is expected to contribute to larger estimation errors than the first one. The benefit is to keep the process operating, even when a local optimum will become hard to achieve. An application example is the use of an alternative second estimation of concentrate grade, when this is not temporarily available on-line.

Operating Problems Detection

Experiences with conventional distributed control showed that some operating problems can be opportunely detected and communicated to an operator, in order to take the necessary corrective actions that avoid process shut down or significant performance degradation. A hierarchical control should have a routine to analyze the state of some process variable and other information in order to make a diagnosis about the operation. When an operating problem is detected a sequence of exploring actions is initiated to identify the origin of the failure [7]. Some of the problems that can be detected are: sparger failure, column flooding (pulp overflow), deep froth, froth under the lip (no concentrate) and lack of frother. There will be cases where a message is sent to the operator and/or a corrective automatic procedure is implemented.

Coordination and Management of Local Control Loops

Most columns operate under froth depth, gas flowrate and wash water flowrate distributed control. Concentrate grade and recovery can be effectively changed by modification of any of these three control loop setpoints. For example, to increase the concentrate grade one can decrease the setpoint of the gas flowrate controller or increase the setpoint of the froth depth controller or increase the setpoint of the wash water flowrate controller. Every action will also change the process recovery by different amounts. Furthermore, the increment in grade can be achieved by several combinations of changes in these three setpoints. As mentioned before, a strong interaction between these control loops is expected. Therefore, an optimum combination of setpoint changes and an optimum time schedule to implement these control actions can be chosen. In fact, when operators are faced with this kind of problem each one prefers his own strategy, so different actions are taken in different operating shifts. Inconsistent operating rules and lack of control loop coordination are therefore usually presented. When the concentrate grade and the recovery can be estimated on line there is much potential for improving the operation through an on-line supervisor system, coordinating and managing the local control loops. Fuzzy systems Since the initial work of Zadeh [8] some decades ago, fuzzy systems have been successfully used as an alternative for control of different types of process. Moreover, fuzzy control has been incorporated in the supervision of some other conventional techniques, such as PID distributed controllers, especially in complex processes. Fuzzy control is achieved in three steps: fuzzification of input variables, rules evaluation or inference process, and defuzzification to produce output variables. .

Fuzzification. Every input and output variable has its own range of valid values. These values can also be interpreted as attributes using linguistic variables, such as high, medium and low. Each value may belong to one ore more attributes. If every possible value belongs to one and only one attribute, then a binary logic may suffice to handle the inference process to make a decision. For example, if the concentrate grade is classified as follows: high between 34 and 32.0%, medium between 31.99 and 30.0, and low between 29.99 and 26%, then the air flowrate setpoint would be increased or decreased by a specific amount according to the state of the input variable. This is the typical situation that leads to an expert system. On the other hand, if a value of a variable can simultaneously belong to more than one attribute and its relation is defined by a membership function, then fuzzy logic is required to process the inputs and obtain an output. Following the previous example, a concentrate grade of 31.7 may strictly be neither high nor medium but instead be "some medium" and "a bit high". After defining a form of membership function the concentrate grade is fuzzified and may be interpreted as 0.3 medium and 0.7 high. For fuzzification there are three degrees of freedom: the number of attributes (in this example: three), the definition of the

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hard values for linguistic variables (in the example: lowest, medium and largest values of the variable) and the form of the membership function (could be triangular, sinusoidal, etc..).

Inference process. Once every input variable has been fuzzified and the process knowledge has been expressed in as many rules as necessary, then an inference process is used to produce the outputs. The rules relate the states of the input and output variables in logic expressions that resemble the knowledge of an expert in the operation of the process. For example, a rule could be: if the concentrate grade is high and the recovery is low then increase the air flowrate setpoint. Another rule could be: if the concentrate grade is medium and the recovery is medium then do not change the setpoint of the air flowrate control loop. Taking the previous example for fuzzification, it can be seen that both rules apply to a certain extent, because the concentrate grade is 0.3 medium and 0.7 high. Therefore the output values will be a weighted sum of contributions made for every rule processed. One important parameter in the tuning of the control rules is the selection of the control period. If the outputs are calculated more frequently then the magnitude of the output changes should be quite small. Usually the control period for supervisors, acting on top of distributed conventional control, is chosen based on process dynamic considerations and constraints imposed by the nature of the measurements involved. Defuzzitieatio,. After the inference process defines the output values as a combination of linguistic attributes, it is necessary to translate these to outputs in real values. There are several methods of defuzzification, the most used being the central gravity and the height methods.

The whole process of fuzzification, inference and defuzzification is shown in Figure 2. The rules are: if the grade is high and the recovery is low then the air is high, and if the grade is normal and the recovery is normal then the air is normal. There are three attributes for each variable, all the membership functions are triangular, and the defuzzification method is the central gravity one. The value of the actual grade is neither normal nor high, it is something in between, 0.3 normal and 0.7 high. In the same sense the actual value of the recovery is something in between low and normal. Using the triangular membership it can be interpreted as 0.6 low and 0.4 normal. The logic processing of this rule is the "and" operator. That means that the first rule define some area that represents how low, and normal, and high the air flowrate should be for this particular input. A similar result can be obtained by processing the second rule. After the "and" logic operation the result is the common area shown at the lower right in Figure 2. If central gravity method is used for defuzzification, the value of the flowrate setpoint would be about 53% of its span. air

grade

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N H

Fig.2 Fuzzification, inference and defuzzification example.

Fuzzysupervisorycontrolof flotationcolumns
SIMULATION

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To test different control strategies as part of the supervisor, four coupled simulators were used, as shown in Figure 3: Dynamic simulator. A dynamic simulator was originally developed to predict operating objectives [9], such as froth depth, gas holdup and bias as a function of the control valve openings used to regulate the gas, tailings and feed flowrates, and the speed velocity of the wash water pump. Dynamic and stochastic models for each input-output variable were obtained from experimental data in a 10 cm diameter and 8.5 m height pilot column, using time series analysis. Metallurgical static simulator. The dynamic simulator was coupled with a static simulator in order to predict the concentrate grade and the process recovery. The simulator can be configured for the design parameters (main physical dimensions) of a particular column, the feed characteristics and the kinetics of the mineralogical species considered. To transform the steady state predictions in a dynamic simulator, first order dynamic filters were incorporated. Time constants were chosen based on experimental data obtained from the pilot column. Distributed conventional PID control simulator. The process simulator was completed by incorporating a distributed conventional PID control simulator on top. Three basic control loops were included in this simulator: the froth depth in cascade with the tailings flowrate control, the gas flowrate control and the wash water flowrate control. The control parameters were obtained using standard tuning procedures. Supervisor simulator. Two supervisors were developed: an expert and a fuzzy supervisor. The simulator produces the setpoint values for the three control loops: froth depth, air flowrate and wash water flowrate, by processing rules that relate the concentrate grade and the process recovery with the operating variables. Every supervisor processes the same information available in different forms.
Setpoints of: frothdepth air flowrate water flowrate

Distributed E IS Control IS Simulator

Supervisor Design parameters:

% valve openings froth depth air flowrate water flowrate

for:[i
[

ConcentrategradeT

Diameter, hight, geometry...

Feed characteristics: Process Dynamic Simulator

Feed flowrate ~ Fig.3 Flow of information in the four coupled simulators.

Process Metallurgic - Simulator

froth depth air flowrate water flowrate

-I

species, density, solid percentage, particle size, grades, kinetic constants..

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The implemented fuzzy supervisor considered three logic tables. A logic table is a set of rules relating the attributes of two input variables with the attribute of one output variable. If each variable has three attributes then a three by three logic table can accommodate a maximum of nine rules. As the number of attributes increases there are more degrees of freedom to shape the non linear surface that a logic table represents. If the number of input variables is greater than two the dimensionality of the logic volume increases accordingly and also the number of rules. In this case, the problem can be formulated by considering as inputs: the grade, the recovery, the air flowrate, the froth depth and the wash water flowrate. For every input one can consider its actual and past values, so the number of inputs can grow to ten. The outputs are the change in the three setpoints of the control loops mentioned before, so the number of rules to be written, considering three attributes per variable, would be over one hundred thousand. A hybrid approach reduces the dimensionality of the problem, combining expert and fuzzy systems. An expert system is used to decide which output would be used to optimize the objective function, reducing the fuzzy problem to three logic tables with two inputs. Considering that the control period is limited by the frequency of the on-line analysis in practice, no past values of inputs are really needed, so that the number of rules to be written is reduced to 27 for a three attributes choice. This coordination module is schematically illustrated in Figure 4. The inputs of each table are the concentrate grade and the recovery errors and the outputs are the changes in froth depth setpoint, gas flowrate setpoint and wash water flowrate setpoint. The expert system is a set of rules that considers the state of concentrate grade and recovery to first decide if the concentrate grade (recovery) should be increased (decreased), decreased (increased) or left as it is. Then the second part checks the outputs applying the principle of maximum availability, i.e. a search for the most remote output variable from its saturation condition.

~ Concentrategrade error
~ Logic table 1 ~

Changes in:

Wash water flowrate setpoint

~ ~,~

Logic table2

Froth depth setpoint

Air flowrate setpoint Recovery error

Fig.4 Coordination module. Fuzzyfication of variables was made by using three, five and seven attributes. In general, three attributes were found sufficient to achieve good supervision. The central gravity and the height methods were tested for defuzzyfication of the output variables to calculate the value of their respective setpoints. An expert supervisor was also implemented and evaluated. Presently, this control strategy is running successfully on the industrial flotation columns operating as second cleaners at El Teniente Concentrator

[3].

The best choice of parameters and logic rules for the fuzzy supervisor are summarized in Tables 1 to 3. In all cases the height defuzzyfication method was used. The fuzzy supervisor was activated every 5 minutes and triangular membership functions were used. Each Table shows the maximum and minimum values for the normal triangular membership function, centered in zero for the inputs and centered in its actual value

Fuzzy supervisorycontrol of flotation columns

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for the output. Figure 5 shows a typical operation of a flotation column under fuzzy supervisory control. The main disturbances are the feed grade and the feed flowrate. A secondary disturbance is the solid percentage in the feed.

TABLE 1 Best rules and parameters used for froth depth

Error in concentrate grade % Error in recovery % Output change cm

-0.1 0.0 -5

0.1 3.0 5

TABLE 2 Best rules and parameters used for air flowrate

Error in concentrate grade % Error in recovery % Output change cm/s

-0.1 0.0 -0.07

0.1 3.0 0.07

In this Figure, the first hours of operation show the start up of the system under fuzzy supervisory control with a new setpoint for the concentrate grade of 31.4 %. After reaching this value it can be seen that the objective of concentrate grade is achieved in a very narrow band while the recovery is always over its minimum value of 40%. During the first hours the supervisor used the three resources (air, water and froth

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B e r g h e t al.

depth) without saturating any of them; 21 hours later a sudden change in the feed grade was made, first a large increment, followed by two decrements. These changes were made mainly to test the supervisor at a l o w recovery event. It can be seen that the flotation column stabilized at a new steady state with a recovery slightly over 40% and with a concentrate grade on target. Once the process reached its new steady state it was decided to m o v e the concentrate grade setpoint to a lower value of 30.6%. As was expected the recovery increased but the process stabilized at a new steady state, over its target. The reason for this was that the new steady state required a saturation of the three available resources, m a x i m u m air flowrate, m i n i m u m froth depth and minimum wash water flowrate. The next step was to further increase the concentrate grade setpoint, in order to stabilize the process and achieve a reasonable recovery and a higher concentrate grade.

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Fig.5 Simulated data under fuzzy supervisory control.

Fuzzy supervisorycontrolof flotationcolumns TABLE 3 Best rules and parameters used for wash water flowrate

747

Error in concentrate grade % Error in recovery % Output change cm/s

-0.1

0.1 3.0 0.05

0.0 -0.05

CONCLUSIONS A combination of different type of simulator: process dynamics, static metallurgical, distributed process control and expert and fuzzy supervisors has proved to be an excellent tool to extensively test new control techniques and strategies for complex processes. This methodology is very important in assessing the real impact that more complex and powerful techniques can make in a real process. Theoretically it can be expected that, since expert binary systems are a subset of fuzzy control, an improvement in process performance should be achieved by using fuzzy control. However, the important aspect is to determine the extent of the improvement compared with the additional effort in obtaining better process performance. In the flotation column control problem both supervisors demonstrated their capabilities for coordinating local control loops and metallurgical objectives. Fuzzy supervisors are an improved alternative to expert supervisors. They provide smooth process dynamic responses especially when constraints are imposed. As expected, fuzzy supervisors required the tuning of more parameters than expert systems and therefore are more time consuming in the start up of the process under supervisory control. Hybrid systems combining expert and fuzzy logic on top of distributed conventional control systems have proved to be a practical solution for handling the dimensionality problem, and therefore the number of rules and parameters, with no significant degradation of the overall process performance. These methods are being used to improve the expert supervisory control at El Teniente Concentrator and at Salvador Concentrator, both of Codelco-Chile.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The financial support received from the Santa Maria University through the Project 972723 is gratefully acknowledged. REFERENCES 1. Bergh, L.G. & Yianatos, J.B., 1993, Control Alternatives for Flotation Columns, Minerals Engineering, 6,(6), p 631-642.

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L. G. Berghet al. Kosics, G.A., Dobby, G.S. & Young, P.D., 1991, ColumnEx: a Powerful and Affordable Control System for Column Flotation, Proceedings International Conference on Column Flotation, Sudbury, Canada, p 359-373. Bergh, L.G., Yianatos, J.B., Acufia, P.C., & Cartes, F., 1996, SINCO-COL Application to Flotation Columns in E1 Teniente Concentrator, Proceedings International Conference Column'96, Montreal, Canada, August, p 583-591. Hirajima, T., Takamori, T., Tsunekawa, M., Masubara, T., Oshima, K., Imai, T., Sawaki, K. & Kubo, S., 1991, The Aplication of Fuzzy Logic Control Concentrate Grade in Column Flotation at Toyaha Mines, Proceedings International Conference on Column Flotation, Sudbury, Canada, p 375-389. Carvalho, M.T., Durao, F.O. & Costa Branco, P.J., 1995, Tuning of Fuzzy Controllers Case Study in a Column Flotation Pilot Plant, Proceedings Applied Decision Techniques Conference'95, Brunel University, London, U. K., p 183-193. Leiva, C.A. & Bergh, L.G., 1996, Fuzzy Control of Froth Depth in a Pilot Flotation Column, Proceedings XII Chemical Engineering Chilean Congress (in Spanish), Valparaiso, October 8-11, p 600-605. Bergh, L.G., Yianatos, J.B., Acufia, C., 1995, Hierarchical Control Strategy for Flotation Columns, Minerals Engineering, 8,(12), p 1583-1591. Zadeh, L.A., 1965, Fuzzy Sets, Information and Control, 8,(3,4), p 338-353. Bergh, L.G. & Yianatos, J.B., 1995, Dynamic Simulation of Operating Variables in Flotation Columns, Minerals Engineering, 8,(6), p 603-613.

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