ISA Transactions, cilt.131, ss.167-177, 2022 (SCI-Expanded)
© 2022 ISAStrong disturbances, time delays, and coupling effects complicate the control of evaporator systems. In this paper, to overcome these difficulties a three-stage controller design is given and as a first step a disturbance observer (DOB) is designed. Then, fractional order PIλDμ controllers (PIλDμ FOC) with inverted decoupling structure are realized. Finally, PIλDμ FOC is enhanced via DOB and applied to control of a considered forced circulation evaporator system. Controlling the evaporator system with the DOB-enhanced PIλDμ FOC is showed more accurate and precise control results when compared with the optimally tuned PID and fuzzy logic controller (FLC). The DOB-enhanced PIλDμ FOC method has remarkable superiority in disturbance rejection and the proposed control method is improved the tracking ability of the system for reference changes.