气体射流冲击干燥含水率在线监控系统设计

Design of online monitoring system for material moisture content in air-impingement drying process

针对气体射流冲击干燥过程中自动称量受风速、设备运行振动、干燥温度等因素影响的问题，设计了新型干燥设备监控系统，实现了干燥过程中物料质量及含水率的自动获取、即时查看及数据显示和存储。系统通过“停机-稳定-称量-启动”自动称量流程及分温度段分载荷区间线性化校准等方案，有效保证了自动称量精度，通过将从机控制器的运行状态纳入到系统运行逻辑判断中，保证了系统长期运行的可靠性和安全性。系统称量量程0～2000g，最小分度值1g。试验表明：自动称量系统相对误差小于0.7%，含水率（湿基）分析误差在±0.9%范围内，满足了干燥过程中在线物料质量及含水率监测需要。该系统为多种物料的干燥进程判断及产品质量保证提供了自动化监控平台。

Moisture content is an important quality index of drying products, which can be obtained by automatic weighing and analyzing its mass in the drying process. Compared with other moisture content measurement technology, the automatic weighing method has good versatility, high accuracy, and simple architecture. Relative humidity of drying air has significant effect on drying kinetics and product quality, while, for interior weighing devices, the humidity of hot air can easily be kept stable during drying process. In order to mitigate the effects of air velocity, equipment operating vibration, drying temperature, and other factors on the interior automatic weighing system of air-impingement drying, a new drying monitoring system based on Modbus communication protocol and RS 485 bus was designed. This system consists of five parts：an HMI （human machine interface） as master, a weighing system, a drying temperature control system, humidity control system, and air velocity control system. This paper mainly focuses on the measurement of material mass and moisture content. For the hardware of weighing system, strain gauge load cell and 0-5 V analog voltage transmitting instrument XST were applied in this system, and in order to implement temperature compensation to weighing system, the Pt100 type temperature sensor was adopted to sample the temperature of the weight sensor. Besides, signal acquisition, processing circuit with 8-bit microprocessor chip PIC16F1829 as core was designed, among which the analog transmission signal of weighting instrument is collected and converted by using 12-bit A/D chip TLC2543, and signal is converted by level conversion chip MAX487 to complete communication between master （HMI） and microprocessor PIC16F1829. And the weighting measurement range of this system is 0-2000 g and the resolving power is 1 g. For software design, median filtering algorithm, “shutdown-maintain-weight-start” automatic weighting procedures, linear calibration at different temperature sections, and load ranges were designed to eliminate the effect of accidental errors on automatic weighing, to weaken the effect of air velocity and equipment operating vibration on automatic weighing without affecting the drying process, and to reduce the effect of higher drying temperature and change of the temperature in wider range on automatic weighing, respectively. Through the above measures, automatic weighing accuracy was ensured effectively. In addition, the status of the slave controllers was incorporated into the run logic judgment of the system to guarantee the system＆#39;s operational safety. This monitoring system could also realize the functions such as isochronal and instant measurement of material mass and moisture content, real-time display, and storage of experiment data in the drying process. After the completion of the system＆#39;s hardware and software design, monitoring system’ detection accuracy of mass and moisture content were tested in air-impingement dryer. Results of the weighing test showed that the maximum relative error to the mass of the samples is less than 0.7%. Then a series of drying tests on carrots were conducted. The results indicated that the error of the moisture content is within ±1.0%in drying process, which achieved the requirement of the on-line monitoring moisture content. The online air-impingement drying monitoring system designed in the current work is of great significance for evaluating and regulating the drying process for various materials, ensuring the product quality, and reducing the energy consumption and the labor intensity of drying operators.