Practical thermal control by thermo-electric actuators

Abstract

In this study a practically feasible Input-Output linearizing feedback law is introduced and tested on an experimental setup. The test setup is representative of part of a medical handheld diagnostics device, requiring fast and accurate temperature control in large temperature ranges. The setup is modelled with an in-house developed lumped mass modelling tool to allow for efficient controller design and synthesis. Furthermore, the setup is controlled via a National Instruments DAQ-unit that communicates with Matlab Simulink on a Windows-based computer. The building blocks in Simulink enabling this are also in-house developed. Experimental results show that the practically feasible control law is capable of dealing with large temperature variations in the setup as well as high frequent fluctuations in the setpoints.

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“…However, the operation of the TEC based on the RTD temperature is not a linear relationship. We instead use a series of modified equations [16] which use the difference between the true temperature and the set point along with a several setup dependent measurable parameters in order to drive the required current to the TEC. The modified equations boost the current above the predicted required amount for the TEC when the temperature is far from the set-point, while also limiting how large a current step can be taken between each sampling period.…”