Multi input single output control of viscous fluid flow using fuzzy logic controller

The main objective is to regulate the flow of viscous fluid automatically. The flow control of viscous fluids is found to be a non-linear process due to variation of flow at different operating temperatures with respect to viscosity. The existing conventional PI controller is simple in structure, reliable in operation and robust to certain extent in performance but they are not generally suitable for non-linear, higher order, time delay and complex systems that have no precise mathematical models. It is difficult to achieve this objective with the conventional approach because of high non-linearity, large disturbances and large time lags. And further it needs frequent tuning which is not an easy task and is also time consuming. This paper presents the real time implementation of Fuzzy logic controller, to control the viscous fluid flow in the lab scale experimental set up of the multi variable control of viscous fluids. Fuzzy control is proved to be better replacement for the conventional method to get better performance for the highly non-linear systems amidst input disturbance to the process at different operating points. The performance of the proposed Fuzzy logic controller is compared with its conventional counter part and its superiority is highlighted.