Modeling, stability and control of an

iron ore balling drum circuit

by P. E. Wellstead*, BSc, PhD, N. Munro*, BSc, PhD, and M. Crosst, BSc, PhD

The paper traces the development of a control strategy for which are employed in the preparation of ores and their
an iron ore balling drum circuit. The first phase of the subsequent reduction to iron. Traditionally, raw ore is
analysis concerns the formulation of a mathematical model made ready for reduction to iron by a granulation process
of the balling process, this leads to a stability study aimed followed by sintering. Essentially, sintering is a hot
at overcoming certain oiaerativnal difficulties associated agglomeration process whereby the granulated ore is
with drum circuits. Finally, a multivariable feedback con- reconstituted into lumps of ore of the right size and con-
troller is designed which allows ball production rate and sistency for subsequent processing (Ball et al, 1973). A
ball quality to be iradependerztly controlled. The key recent trend, brought on by the need to extract finely
practical contributions are the formulation of a simple disseminated ore deposits and by the growing use of ’direct
stabilising technique and a special control system for reduction’* iron making, is to reconstitute the ground ore
reducing the sensitivity of the production rate to the by a relatively new process known as pelletising. In this
addition of water into the drum. process, the agglomerates take the form of small balls
which are produced at room temperature. Thus, pelletising
List of symbols for 1 ’ is essentially a cold agglomeration process.
appendix This paper is concerned with the problems of modelling,
B bentonite content of material (% wt of feed stabilising and controlling the balling process. In particular,
. material) the project described here stems from an approach made to
d~u initial average diameter
°
on entry to 2nd growth the authors by a major steel making company who were
stage (m) planning to install a particular kind of balling process
d~~ ~ average diameter of output ball distribution (m) known as the balling drum or (less frequently) drum
di diameter of balls in class (m) pelletiser. As suggested above, the basic stages in preparing
d~r diameter of smallest stable ball (m) ore for reduction to iron are (a) crushing and grinding of
dp average distance rolled per pass through drum by the raw ore, (b) a separation process to remove impurities,
charge (m) and (c) a reconstitution or agglomeration of the purified
(k -1) smallest class size of balls surviving on leaving ore into lumps of a suitable size and consistency for the
drum particular reduction technique in hand.
L length of drum (m) One of the key properties of pelletising is that it can use
At ball generation rate in first growth stage (per tonne very finely ground ores; this has the advantage that it leads
of feed material per metre rolled) to a more efficient separation of impurities in finely
t~ rotational speed of drum (rev/min) disseminated ores, with the added economic advantage that
ni number of balls in class i ore dust which is too fine for hot agglomeration can be
R radius of drum (m) collected and fed to a cold agglomerator.
S slope of drum axis (in/ft) The balling drum operation (depicted in Fig 1) consists
Tr residence time of change in drum (min) of a rotating drum into which ground ore is charged at a
T~ rate of input of fresh feed material to drum (m~) constant rate. Once in the drum, trim moisture is added by
Vi amount of feed material available in first growth a set of adjustable water sprays to assist the adhesion of the

stage after first increment (m3) ore particles and their subsequent growth into balls.
1V moisture content of charge (% wt of feed material) Growth is induced by the rotation of the drum and the
W* effective moisture content of charge (% wt of feed presence of a small percentage of an agglomerating agent,
material) such as bentonite. The drum is tilted a few degrees so that
~
dynamic angle of repose of charge in drum as the naissant balls tumble in the rotating drum they also
(degrees) progress down the length of the drum. When the balls
7 ball growth constant in 2nd growth stage emerge from the drum they are passed through a screening
5 distance rolled by charge per increment (m) process whereby balss of the correct size are drawn off and
A ball growth rate parameter in lst growth stage (m/ passed to an induration process ~~rc~ss et ai, 1977). Over-
metre rolled) sized balls are similarly drawn off and reground, while balls
p density of feed material (tonneJrr~~) which are too small are fed onto a conveyor belt and
recycled through the drum (Fig 1).
The principle aim of the drum circuit is to produce balls
1. Introduction
of iron ore of a certain size, typically 8 mm to 12 mm
One of the most significant trends in modem iron and diameter. However, the important side constraint exists
steel making is the changed emphasis and new techniques that the balls produced must be of the correct quality. Now

*
Control Systems Centre, UMIST, Manchester.
t Department of Mathematics, Sunderland Polytechnic, Sunderland.
86

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the quality of balls is measured in terms of their percentage
moisture content, in the sense that balls which are too dry
are likely to break easily during transit and storage, whereas
wet balls will coalesce and have poor induration properties.
One can therefore see the automatic control of the balling
drum circuit as being, by its very essence, a multivariable
problem (Fig 2) in which the outputs which we wish to
regulate are the correct size product rate and the percentage
moisture content of the product. The control inputs which
we have at our disposal are the feed rate of iron ore and the
rate at which water is added to the drum.
It thus appears that the control objective is well
defined; there are, however, some significant problems
which have to be overcome before one can contemplate
multivariable control of the balling drum. Most significant
amongst these is the instability which drum circuits display
whereby the recycle load and correct sized product (Fig 1)
are subject to a cyclic variation normally referred to as
,surging’. In normal operation, the surge has a cycle time of
7-12 rriin. The average recycle load lies (typically) in the
range 150%-300% of the feed rate and the recycle surge
amplitude is about 20% of this mean value (Carter and
Wright, 1967). An example of this oscillatory behaviour
Fig 2 The drum circuit as a multivariable problem
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Fig ~ 1 Schematic of the balling drum
circuit
which, incidentally, has no deleterious effect on the con-
sistency of product quality when operating in a stable
fashion, is shown in Fig 3. Unfortunately, the surge ampli-
tude is not always constant, the amplitude of the surge can
begin to vary dramatically and for no apparent reason. This
behaviour, which is normally attributed to variation in
plant parameters, has a detrimental influence on balling
drum control sometimes resulting in circuit breakdown --
and has a deleterious effect upon ball quality.
Clearly, before we can approach the problem of multi-
variable control of the balling drum, the source of surging
must be traced and removed. However, the source of
surging is by no means clear, being variously ascribed in the
particle technology literature to variations in the moisture
content, bentonite level, size distribution of the feed
material, rotational speed of the drum and the texture of
the drum lining (Ball et al, 1973; Haley and Apuli, 1962;
Ilmoni, 1962; Carter and Wright, 1967). Such uncertainty
concerning the source of surging suggests that a closer study
of the dynamics of ball formation in the drum is required,
and in this spirit the initial part of our work is concerned
with drum modelling.
To summarise: the motivation and structure of the
entire drum control exercise was:
A detailed modelling exercise was necessary in order to
understand the source of surging and to provide a
simulation tool for subsequent studies. This led to a
stability study off the drum circuit and the proposal and
validation (via the simulation model) of a stabilising
technique. With the drum stabilised, the way was then
clear for the final stage; a multivariable control study of
the drum circuit. The layout of this paper reflects the
sequence of events outlined above. In particular, section
2 describes a mathematical model of the balling drum
circuit. Section 3 uses a qualitative model of the drum to
motivate a series of possible techniques for surge
suppression. Finally, section 4 discusses the multivariable
control of theballing drum by way of Rosenbrock’s
inverse Nyquist array design method.
87
 Fig 3 Recycle load variation of a
balling drum circuit

2. Modelling of the balling drum circuits (Cross, (iii) Ball Growth phrase - here the balls are composed of a
tightly packed interior surrounded by a thin wet shell
’

1972) .

and subsequent growth occurs by the mechanisms

In this section, the problem of modelling the dynamical
behaviour of a balling circuit is considered. Clearly, the (Sastry and Fuerstenau, 1973) of coalescence, crushing
and layering, and abrasion transfer as illustrated in Fig
process is rather complex and not directly amenable to 4.
the conventional methods of systems analysis used by
control engineers. Nevertheless, over the years a number of During the last decade various groups of workers (Capes
attempts have been made to characterise the agglomeration and Danckwerts, 1965a; Kapur and Fuerstenau, 1969;
process (Carter and Wright, 1967; Ruchkin and Markov, Linkson et al, 1973) have attempted to demonstrate the
1968; Capes et al, 1975). Many of these studies have dominance of one particular mechanism or other in ball
been of a qualitative nature, while others have placed great growth. Capes and Danckwerts (1965a) showed that crush-
emphasis upon laboratory studies. Our feeling was that a ing and layering was the dominant mechanism for (un-
computer simulation based upon a detailed study of the
ball growth mechanism would finally be a more tractable
exercise, leading to a simulation tool of greater flexibility
than scaled laboratory exercises or qualitative methods.
This is not to denigrate the qualitative approach; indeed, in
the arguments which follow we will ourselves develop a
qualitative model of sorts. Nor do we wish to impune
laboratory studies, for again we use the excellent practical
work of Sastry and Fuerstanau (1972) to tune the
simulation model developed here.
We now turn to the problem of characterising the means
by which pellets are created and grow inside a drum.
Fortunately, the amount of published literature in this area
is quite extensive (Sastry and Fuerstenau, 1971, 1972;
Linkson <?f~, 19731 Nicol and 1973), such that
together with the previously mentioned laboratory studies,
we can identify three main phases of ball growth:

(i) l~la~~lei phase - particulate ore agglomerates initially

into irregular shaped lumps due to capillary and other
cohesive forces. Further rolling deforms the lumps into
small stable balls, known as seeds, with a highly porous
moisture-air-material structure.
(ii) Transition phase - the balls enter this phase when after
further rolling they are compacted so that the inter-
stitial void volume decreases and the constructed
capillaries fill with moisture. The ball’s surface
becomes saturated so that it deforms easily and as a
consequence, growth continues quite rapidly pre-
dominantly by a mechanism called coalescence (Fig Fig 4 Representation of main ball growth mechanisms: (a)
4(a)).
-

coalescence, (b) crushing and layering, (c) abrasion transfer

88

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natural) closed sized sands. They also discovered that the
green* ball size distribution in the batch balling drum was
of a self preserving nature. Sometime later, Kapur and
Fuerstenau (1969) performed a theoretical analysis based
on the coalescence mechanism and again showed the ball
size distribution to be self-preserving in the same way as
Capes and Danckwerts. Recently, Linkson et al ( 1973~
have shown that abrasion transfer is the important
mechanism during the latter stages of ball growth and once
again confirmed the self-preserving nature of the ball size
distribution.
In a second paper, Capes and Danckwerts (1965b)
developed a theory of ball growth based on the crushing
and layering mechanism. More precisely, they assumed
growth took place by the crushing of the smallest ball
present and the redistribution of the material to the remain-
ing balls in proportion to their diameter. The subsequent
equation for the ball size distribution was indeed found to
be of a self-preserving nature. In other words, this inplies
that to whichever mechanism the ball growth is attributed,
it appears that the larger balls tend to grow at the expense
of the smaller ones. Such a deduction is really quite
reasonable when it is realised that, other things being equal,
* During their formation and prior to baking in the indurating grate,
balls are frequently said to be ’green’ or untreated.
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Fig 5 The effect of moisture and
bentonite on the ball growth rate (after
Sastry and Fuerstenau)
green ball strength is proportional to some positive power
of its diameter (Newitt and Conway-Jones, 1958).
The discussion thus far has been based on results
obtained from balling in batches, ie placing some material
in the drum and observing the growth characteristics of the
balls as the drum rotates. However, Capes and Danckwerts
(1965b) also studied the effect on ball growth of periodically
adding fresh feed material to the drum. These results
showed that when fresh feed material was available, both
new seeds were produced and the existing balls grew at a
rate so as to maintain the same diameter distribution ie
growth was independent of their diameter.
A great deal of work has been published (Sastry,
Fuerstenau, 1970, 1971, 1972; Nicol and Adanaiak, i 9’l3 ;
Linkson ~ a~ 1973) on investigations of the way in which
variations in moisture content, bentonite level and particle
size distribution of the raw material affects the rate of ball
growth. That the moisture content and particle size distri-
bution should influence this factor is hardly surprising since
they are bound to affect the main cohesive, agglomerating
fcarce ~- capillary attraction. The effect of bentonite, which
is added to the raw ore both (Ball et ~alg 1973) to promote
faster drying rates on the grate and greater dry t~all strength,
is less obvious, affecting the growth rate by its ability to
absorb moisture.
Sastry and Fuerstenau (1970, 1972) have examined in
89

Fig 6 Variation of two green ball quality measures with
moisture (Supplied by R. Lappin, British Steel, Teesside)
90
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detail the effects on ball growth rates of varying the
moisture content and bentonite levels. Their results can be
summarised in Fig 5 (reproduced from Sastry and
Fuerstenau, 1972) which shows that increasing the .
moisture content rapidly increases the ball growth rate,
while increasing the bentonite content has the opposite
effect. The size distribution of the raw material also affects
the growth kinetics (Kapur and Fuerstenau, 1969; Newitt
and Conway-Jones, 1958); closely sized or coarsely ground
material induces fast ball growth whilst fmely ground ores
have the opposite effect.
Finally, apart from influencing ball growth kinetics these
factors (ie moisture content, bentonite level and size distri-
bution) also affect the quality (ie strength and deformability)
of green balls (Linkson et al, 1973; Nicol and Adamiak,
1973 Newitt and Conway-Jones, 1958). Furthermore,
since acceptable ball quality lies within quite a narrow
range of operating conditions, as demonstrated by Fig 6,
this introduces an important constraint into the control of
the balling drum circuit process.
From the outline of ball growth mechanisms above, it is
clear that the amount a ball has grown can be gauged from
the distance it has rolled in the drum. This concept forms
the basis for the mathematical model (Cross, 1972) and the
associated simulation program.
The details of the model and simulation are fully
explained in Appendix 1 (see also Cross et al, ( 977) and
~rass ~ ~ 972~), It will, however, prove useful briefly to out-
line the structure of the simulation program, since the
stability and control studies which follow are based upon it.
In the same spirit, it is also worth pointing out that an inter-
active version of the mathematical model exists (Cross and
Wellstead, 1978) which has been successfully used for
training operators in the manual operation of the balling
drum circuit.
With reference to Fig 7, the drum is split up into a set
of discrete transverse sections such that the ball growth
mechanism can be considered on a lumped parameter basis
in each section by postulating a distribution of ball
diameters associated with each section or increment.
Following the arguments set out previously the ball growth
is assumed to follow two distinct stages. The first occurs in
the first few increments where feed material is available. In
this stage, new balls are formed from the feed particles and
existing balls grow by picking up feed material. Ball growth
is assumed to continue in this manner until the supply of
feed material is exhausted. Growth then continues by
Fig 7 Showing the operation of the
mathematical model with sectional
drum and return conveyor
 destruction of the smaller balls and redistribution of the
material amongst the survivors.
On completing this growth form the ball distribution
emerges from the drum, is screened and the undersized balls
recycled via a simulated return conveyor which is
segmented in the same way as the drum.
3. Stability of the balling drum circuit
3.1 Qualitative Model
In the introduction to this article some stress was placed
upon the stability problems associated with the balling
drum circuit. The quantity of correct sized pellets produced
by the balling drum circuit exhibits a self-sustaining
periodic oscillation known conventionally as surging. Fig 3
shows a typical recycle load variation from an actual drum
circuit. Note that the oscillation has a peak-to-peak amplz-
tude of - 120% of the ore feedrate, such that the mean
through-put of the plant must be substantially reduced in
order to accommodate these peaks. Thus it is hardly likely
that a useful overall drum control strategy can be imple-
mented in the presence of such oscillations in the principal
output variable. For these reasons an essential precursor to
the regulation studies of the drum circuit is a critical
examination of the surging problem. The conventional
explanation of the source of surging is that it is a function
of the dynamical properties of ball formation within the
’
drum. However, some reflection upon.the mechanisms of
ball growth outlined in the previous section indicates that
this is unlikely. Indeed, the mechanism can be argued to be
self-stabilising, since the final growth stage involves a
destruction of part of the smaller pellet population.
If the instability in the drum circuit is considered as a
function of the recycled undersized balls, a qualitative
model can be developed by considering the distribution of
the balls at any point in the drum circuit to be represented
by the mean diameter of that distribution. In this way the
balling drum circuit can be drawn (see Fig 8) as a simple
feedback system in which the mean diameter did of the
recycle load becomes the drum input (replacing the distri-
bution d,{f=l,2,...,M} returned by the recycle conveyor
in the simulation model), and equal to the average diameter
dli in the simulation model, with d2 representing the mean
diameter of balls at the output of the drum.
A naive model of the drum circuit then follows by
assuming that diameters d i and d~ are related by a noun-
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linear constitutive relationship, and that the effective
dynamics of the drum is a single time delay T equal to the
mean residence time of balls in the drum. The screening
process can then be considered to be a simple static non-
linearity with constitutive relation (for the recycle load
mean diameter ria) given by:
da(t) =d~(t) d2(t) < screen size
...
(1)
~)
d3(t) = 0 d~(t) ~ screen size
Finally, the return conveyor is modelled time
as a delay
equal to the residence time ~~,, such that
d1(t)=d3(t r9 ... ~2)
It is now clear that the balling circuit is a non-linear
feedback system, and one would anticipate some problem
with possible instability. Indeed, describing function
methods can be applied to the qualitative model. However,
such a procedure, while useful (Wellstead et al, 1976a),
should be treated with caution since, strictly speaking, the
system of Fig 8 contravenes the requirements of the simple
describing function approach, since it lacks a low-pass
system to filter the non-sinusoidal oscillations in the
manner required.
A acceptable approach is to apply stabilising
more
strategies derived from the above qualitative model to the
dynamical simulation model of the previous section. In this
manner, we can check whether conventional control
strategies stabilise the dynamical simulation, and if they do
then the structure of our qualitative model is vindicated.
3.2 Stabilising strategies
The basic method of stabilising an oscillating loop is to
simply reduce the loop gain. In the balling drum circuit this
corresponds to recycling a fraction a of the undersized
product x, as shown in Fig 9. The problem with this
strategy is that one is now feeding back material not
information, as in the normal feedback system, and that the
surplus undersized product must be accommodated in some
way. In this connection our proposal is to regrind the
surplus undersized product. However, this proposal hinges
upon the quantity x ( 1- a) being relatively small.
Fortunately, this proves to be the case, for the drum circuit
is only marginally unstable; this point is demonstrated in
Fig 10, which shows the drum simulator (tuned to corre-
spond with an existing drum circuit) with 100%, 9S~’~, 85%
Fig 8 Showing the feedback
structure of the
balling drum operation
91
 Fig 9 Schematic of partial feedback
surge controller

Fig 3Q Variation of the recycle I~aat~:

(a) under standard condition, (b) when
95% of the undersize is recirculated,
and (c) when 85% of the undersize is
recirculated

partial feedback in which the surge reduction is concom-
mitant with the reduction in percentage material being
recycled. In a similar s~airzt, Fig 3 shows the response of
the recycle load to a step change in the water spray setting
with 90% partial feedback.
Fig 11I Recycle 3~ac~ response to a step change in
sprays, with partial feedback (a 0.9)
=
92
An alternative stabilising technique (Wellstead et al,
1978) which does not require regrinding of surplus
undersized pellets is to introduce a low-pass filter into the
feedback loop in the form of a large pellet hold-up device.
The difficulty with this approach is that the hold-up con-
tainer may be extremely large, and that the moist pellets
will tend to coalesce when stored in this manner. The latter
problem can be avoided neatly by mixing the ore feed with
the recycle load such that the undersized pellets are
suspended in ground ore. Of course, such pre-mixing may
well have repercussions in the kinetics of ball growth.
Nevertheless, pellet hold-up is an admissible stabilising
technique, as is indicated in Fig 1 ~, where the physical size
of the recycle hold-up is indicated in relation to the drum
size. In order to accentuate the surging effect we have here
the s#mulating to a drum circuit m a
fairly severe surge situation. Notice that to effect a
reasonable reduction in the surge amplitude a hold-up
device some five times the size of the drum itself is needed.
Moreover, no matter how well we tune the simulation there
is no assurance that having constructed such a container
that it will be large enough for a particular drum, whereas
one can easily alter the partial feedback fraction in situ. For
this reason, we prefer to use partial feedback as our
stabilising technique.
water Before leaving the stability problems of drum circuits we
should point out some other approaches to surge suppression.

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Fig 12 Typical responses for the recycle hold-up surge
controller
In particular, two methods have found some currency in
the literature {Ilmoni, 1962; Swedish Patent Application).
In one, using water spray control, the addition of moisture
via the water sprays in the drum is modulated in antiphase
to the surge in the pellet product rate. The idea behind this
is that since the pellet growth rate is proportional to the
percentage moisture (Fig 5), an appropriate modulation
of the water sprays will mitigate surge action. In the second,
tandem drum operation, two drums are run in parallel with
the recycle conveyors crossed over, so that the undersized
pellets from one drum are fed to the other. The aim here
being to break, in some way, the surge cycle by a ’second’
pass through the drum.
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A complete discussion of these techniques is given else-
where (Wellstead et al, 1978). We can, however, note here
that neither of these proposals leads to completely surge-
free drum operation. On the one hand the water spray
method adjusts the pellet moisture to mitigate surge and
thus adversely affects pellet quality. In a similar way the
tandem drum technique is inappropriate, since although it
is sometimes possible to stabilise one of the drums the
remaining drum will oscillate much more violently than
before.
In the end we are left with a simple gain reduction, or
partial feedback, as the simplest but most effective means
of removing surge from the drum circuit. Indeed, the
critical reader may justifiably point out that such a con-
clusion could have been reached without the aid of the
qualitative notions presented here. However, this is wisdom
in hindsight, for prior to the exposure in WeUstead et al
(1976a) of the balling circuit as a limit cycling feedback
loop, the only acceptatble means of surge control was
manual intervention by a trained operator, and this after
some 15 or more years of research on the part of particle
technologists. Even if manual control is still preferable, as
may be the case in certain established balling circuits, the
work described here is still of direct use. As mentioned
previously, the drum simulator program BALSIM (Cross
and Wellstead, 1978) is available in a form suitable for
the preliminary training of drum operators.
4. 1~9~a~t~~~r~~~l~ control of the drum circuit
In this section we consider the overall control objective
-
independent regulation of ball product rate and ball
percentage moisture content. As mentioned before, the
manipulated inputs are respectively the ore feedrate and the
water spray rate (Fig 2). The control configuration to be
considered is shown in Fig 13, in which the first t output y i,
ball product rate, is measured by weighing gear attached to
the product conveyor while the second output y,2, ball
moisture content, is obtained by a novel reflectometry
method (Carter and Young, 1976).
With reference to Fig 13, the design procedure to be
adopted is to use Rosenbrock’s Inverse Nyquist Array
(INA) Method to design a multivariable compensator I~~ (s)
which results in a reduction in the interaction between the
various systems inputs and outputs to such an extent that
the stability of the resulting system can be easily deter-
mined, then to complete the design using single-input/single-
output compensators, k~ 1 (s), kz (s), to meet stability and
regulator requirements. The basis of the INA design method
(Rosenbrock, 1974;Munro, 1972a) can be explained in
terms of the control configuration shown in Fig were
the output vector z(s) is related to the reference input
93

Fig 14 General multivariable closed-loop system
vector r(s) by the closed-loop transfer function matrix
H {~~, thus:
z(s) l<II(s) res)
=
where
H(3) = [(I ~’ Q(s) F-’ Q(s)]1
and .
~ ~~) = L (s) ~ ~s~ ~ (s)
L (~~ is a suitable output compensator matrix, I~(s~ is a
suitable input compensator matrix, and F~s a diagonal
matrix of feedback gains, F= diag ~f }, the fi being simple
feedback gains, ultimately implemented in the forward
path as part of the cornpensators.kz{s). If det (Q(s)) # 0
then the inverse of (s) can be written as:
9(s) = #(s) + F
where the symbol (&dquo;) indicates the matrix inverse. This
inverse relationship shows the effect of the designer’s
choice of compensators on the resulting system much more
simply than the direct relationship given in Eqn (4).
The INA approach hinges upon the selection of the
inverse compensators
G~s~ L~s)
L (s) and K(s)
such that
is ’diagonally dominant’. Once an adequate
degree of diagonal dominance, or decoupling, has been
achieved the multivariable system can be regarded as m
single-input/single output problems which can then be
<3(.s)=A’(s)
considered individually.
The exact method of design of the drum control scheme
is not important. What is important is the introduction of
some additional instrumentation which effectively deter-
mines the structure of the resulting control scheme. Here,
the application of the INA approach to the balling drum
circuit is presented briefly as follows. First, a transfer
function matrix model for the stabilised drum is required.
This was obtained by linearising the dynamical charcteristics
of the stabilised balling drum model about the normal
operating point (90 tonnes/feed rate, 6.4 tonnes/h water
spray rate) as specified by the plant engineers. Then, with
the drum simulator tuned, as far as was possible, to the
specification of the actual drum circuit and stabilised by
applying 80% partial feedback, a locally linearised transfer
function matrix model was obtained by fitting to step
response data using Mi-climbing algorithm. The fitting
technique, which is fairly standard (see for example Nuske
and Wellstead (1976)), led to the following transfer
function matrix:
G(s)=
~~0.6s+0.6~)eliss,s
’-(87~0.61)~
/
94
I~C3~~+i.kS+(l.l~
O.008e-20s
1(l~s~+3.~~.~ + O.I1
1000~+25~+5.3~+0.06~+0.007
0.25<T~
100~+0.255
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The design task is now to determine the controller,
matrix Kp (s), preferably with constant coefficients, such
that when the loops are closed the system is stable and has
suitably fast responses. This process starts with an examina-
tion of the Inverse Nyquist Array (INA) of the basic system
G (s) (Fig 15), evaluated over a suitable range of frequencies
s = jc~. Notice that the upper off-diagonal entry il1.(jW)
dominates the array. Physically, this corresponds to the
extreme sensitivity of both outputs, particularly the ball
product rate, to the water spray rate. In this context the
reader may care to recall from Section 2 that the amount of
moisture added to the drum has a direct influence upon the
(3) rate of ball growth, so that the relatively large magnitude of
il1.VW) is not so surprising. In the same spirit, the proposal
to regulate drum surging by varying the water sprays
... (4) (Swedish Patent Application) is based upon the pre-
dominance of the transmittance from water spray to ball
product rate.
The influence of the moisture upon balling is also
responsible for the negative influence of ore feed rate upon
product rate (c.f. element gn(s) in G(s)). This paradox is
resolved by noting that an increase in ore feed rate reduces
the percentage moisture available for ball growth, and
hence (throughg,2(s)) the product rate.
From amultivariable design viewpoint, the size ofil.2(iw)
is a distinct disadvantage, since it means that we commence
...(5) the design with a 6 (s) which is very far from dominant. A
preliminary INA design resulted in the compensators:
(20s+0.14
4 B -C~.~133 0
&horbar;&horbar;&horbar;&horbar;&horbar;&horbar;&horbar;&horbar;&horbar;&horbar;
0
Q
.~ {s) _
/- / / /
200s ~-1.~2
(20s~-
- ~2(is
15 (200s + l A2) - 1 5
+ 0.1
0. 1 ~.)
4) i1
,
‘
L (s) =
.0 0 - 1
...(6)
which made 422 row dominant but not 4u. What the
Inverse Array design technique indicated at this point is
what we must either further increase the complexity of the
compensators or attempt to modify the system in some
way. Furthermore, interaction with the plant engineers
concerned suggested that the multivariable controller would
have to be extremely simple in order to meet practical con-
straints, and that controllers of the form given in Eqn (6)
were already too complicated.
Thesethoughts led to the suggestion that extra instru-
mentation which is commercially available be incorporated
into the drum circuit water sprays in order that the actual
water flow rate input to the drum becomes a product of the
demanded water flow rate and a signal proportional to the
ore feed rate. In practical terms this means that whenever
the demanded water spray or the ore feed rate is altered,
the product controHer enslres the moisture
content fed into the drum remains constant. The net
influence of this approach on the system dynamics is to
nullify the transfer function between ore feed rate and
percentage moisture content (element g2l(S) in G(s)), and
to slightly modify the transfer function matrix element
g~~~s) by an amount which depends upon the fraction of
- feed rate incorporated in the product controller.
The design of a multivariable controller is now straight-
forward, since with the lower off diagonal element in G(s)
set to zero, dominance is easily obtained by scaling the first
column and second row of by an appropriate amount. d(s)
 Fig 17 Gershgorin bands for the element Q22 of compen-
sated modified balling drum circuit with partial feedback

Fig 15 ~i~A of the basic ba.6ling drum circuit with partial Considering dominance by columns, since entry ga~(s) is
feedback
zero, the Gershgorin band, defined by circles of radius
In

The practical difficulty with this approach is that the F~~ = ~ 1 I ... (8)
nullified transfer function g,,(s) may not be set exactly to j~2i
/~1i
zero, but rather to some small rational function 8 ~s), The
relative magnitudes of the scaling operations then become ~arga~~s~ have zero diameter. Fig 17 shows the Gershgorin
important, since they determine the sensitivity of the band for gaa(~~ by columns, also defined by Sastry and
dominance criteria to variations in 6 (s). Fortunately, the
scalings required were not as large as the original INA (Fig
15) might imply, for, as shown in Fig 16, the inclusion of
product water-sprays control results in a more evenly
t~aianced INA. The physical reason for this is that the
modified water spray control increases the effective trans-
mittance between ore-feed rate and pellet-product rate.
Dominance is now achieved b5~ scaling column 1 by 5 and
row 2 by 10, using inverse post- and pre-compensator
matrices,

~. - dla~ ~3~9 ~~f-~ C~.irlg ’~~ f ~~l ...(7)

Fig 16 INA of modified balling drum circuit with partial

feedback Fig ~~ Step responses of the compensated system
95

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Fuerstenau (1972); the band does not enclose the origin
and hence the element is dominant.
Based upon the new simpler compensator matrices given
in Eqn (7), single-input/single-output proportional-plus-
integral compensators were designed with proportional
gains of 5 and integral time constants of 100 seconds in
each channel. Fig 18 shows the closed-loop step responses
of the model for these settings. In both cases the closed-
loop system time constants are about 10 min, which in
ternns of pelleting circuits is acceptable.
5. Conclusions
The key steps in the study outlined in this paper are:
(i) The formulation of a mathematical model of the
balling circuit which makes use of the self-preserving
native of the distribution of ball diameters and the
growth mechanisms implied by the nuclei, transition
and ball growth phases of green ball behaviour.
(ii) The recognition that passive control techniques can be
used to stabilise the surging phenomenon. In this way
the water spray is released from its role as surge
quencher and can be manipulated as one input of a
multivariable controller,.
(iii) The observation that the INA of the drum is dominated
by the element which corresponds to the transmittance
between water sprays and product, in a manner which
suggests a direct multivariable controller design, would
be very complex. A way round this is to use a scaled
product of the ore reed rate and required water con-
tent to drive the sprays. This gives a more tractable
INA and yields a simple controller.
The successful combination of these three pieces of
work has culminated in a simple solution to a very practical
problem. However, although at the outset of this project
some four years ago, the agreed goal was a control scheme
which automatically regulated ball production and ball
quality without manual intervention, the industrial climate
has now radically altered, to the extent that the multi-
variable controller design is no longer considered by our
industrial collaborators to be the most important contri-
bution of the project. Indeed, it now seems likely that the
final control scheme will retain an element of manual
control, while incorporating two important aspects of our
study. The first of these is the use of feedback compen-
sation by partial pellet feedback to reduce surging; this
technique is now the subject of a patent (Wellstead et al,
1976b). The second aspect is the use of a scaled product of
moisture demand and feed rate to drive the water sprays.
The basic INA (Fig 15} indicated that a practicable overall
control strategy would be difficult without this feature,
and as a result it is intended to incorporate it into a manual
control scheme.
Viewed coldly, our multivariable controller design is not
necessary, but provided leading to the -final si-mi pie
control scheme. One can, however, take the view that the
overall project has been a success, leading to a flexible drum
simulation model and a surge suppression strategy. Even the
multivariable controller design is not entirely defunked
since the most important part of the design was the incor-
poration of product-ratio control of the water sprays.
Beyond this, and of general significance to other balling
drum users is the way in which the simulator BALSIM
(Cross and Wellstead, 1978) provides on the one hand
a way of evaluating proposed control schemes and on the
other hand a tool for the training of balling drum operators.
96
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,
References
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1973. Agglomeration of iron ores, Heinemann Books
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Chem and Met Eng, 100, March.
Capes, C. E., McIlhinney, A. E. and Coleman, R. D. 1975.
’Some considerations of the dynamics of balling circuits’,
SME, AIME Pre-print No 75-B-25.
Capes, C. E. and Danckwerts, P. V. 1965a. ’Granule forma-
tion by the agglomeration of damp powders, Part 1 -
The mechanism of granulate growth’, Trans Instn Chem
Engr, 43, 116-124.
Capes, C. E. and Danckwerts, D. V. 1965b. ’Granule forma-
tion by the agglomeration of damp powder, Part 2 -
The distribution of granule sizes’, Trans Instn Chem
Engrs, 43, 125-130.
Carter, G. C. and Wright, F. 1967. ’Analysis of sintering and
pelletizing including laboratory investigations’, Instn
Mining Met Soc Proc Symp Adv in Extractive Metallurgy,
pp. 83-113.
Carter, G. A. and Young, R. S. 1976. Balling process, -
United Kingdom Patent Application.
Cross, M. 1972. ’A mathematical model of the balling drum
circuit of a
Ironmaking and Steel-
pelletizing plant’,
making, 4
, 159.
Cross, M. and Wellstead, P. E. 1978. ’Use of an interactive
digital simulation in manual and automatic controller
evaluation’, Simulation, 30
, 55-61.
Cross, M., Young, R. W., Wellstead, P. E. and Gibson, R. D.
1977. The mathematical modelling and control aspects
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published as Agglomeration 77 (ed by K. V. S. Sastry),
p. 403, American Inst Mining, Met and Petroleum Eng
Inc, New York.
Haley, K. M. and Apuli, W. E. 1963. ’Pelletizing on a
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Ilmoni, P. A. 1962. ’Discussion of Haley and Apuli’s paper’,
Agglomeration (ed W. A. Knepper), pp. 958-963. Inter-
Science, New York.
Kapur, P. C. and Fuerstenau, D. W. 1969. ’A coalescence
model for granulation,’
I and EC Proc Design and Dev, 8,
56.
Linkson, P. B., Glastonbury, J. R. and Duffy, G. J. 1973.
’The mechanism of granule growth in wet pelletizing’,
Trans Inst Chem Engrs, 51
, 25 1.
Munro, N. 1972a. ’Multivariable control system design’, -
Computer Aided Design, 4,222.
Munro, N. 1972b. Conversational mode CAD of control
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Conference in Computer Aided Design, Southampton,
UK, pp.418-431.
Newitt, D. M. and Conway-Jones, J. M. 1958. ’A contri-
bution to the theory and practice of granulation’, Trans
Inst Chem Engrs, 36
, 422-442.
Nicol, S. K. and Adamiak, Z. P. 1973. ’Role of bentonite
in the wet pelletization process’, Trans Inst Mining and
Met, C26-C33 (March).
Nuske, D. and Wellstead, P. E. 1976. ’Identification of an
automotive gas-turbine. Part 2 - Parameter fitting’,
Int
J Control
, 24 , 311-324.
Rosenbrock, H. H. 1974. Computer aided control system
design, Academic Press, London.
Ruchkin, I. E. and Markov, A. D. 1968. ’Operation of
industrial pelletizing drums at the Sokdow - Sarbai
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(in English).
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Sastry, K. V. and Fuerstenau, D. W. 1970. ’Size distribu-
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APPENDIX 1 - FORMULATION OF THE
MODEL
The model considers a material ‘saynp~e’ and follows it
round the circuit and evaluates how the ball size distribution
changes on its passage through the drum. Now the distance
rolled per pass through the drum depends on the residence
time, the average distance rolled per revolution of the drum
and the rotational speed. The residence time in the drum
is given by Bayard (1945)
3~’y =
0.037 (a + 24) L/21fnRS (A 1)
...
where cue is the dynamic angle of repose of the charge, L is
the drum length, R is its radius, n is its rotational speed and
~S is its slope. Since it may be deduced from Saeman ~1951~
that the average distance travelled per revolution is 4~, the
distance rolled by the average ball per pass through the
drum is
dp = 4anR Tr ..(A2)
Although the distance a ball rolls does give some realistic
relative measure of the number of collisions undergone, it
gives little indication of the other main basic contributory
factor to growth, vis the force of these collisions. However,
since both the bed depth and the peripheral speed is some-
what greater in the actual balling circuit than in the experi-
mental batch drum, this means both the collision forces and
the ball growth rate are likely to be correspondingly higher
in the actual circuit. Consequently, whilst the relative
growth rates for the varying moisture/bentonite levels are
the same as the laboratory results, the actual rate of growth
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is much faster. This feature is incorporated into the model
by using Sastry and Fuerstenau’s results in a modified form
accounting for the faster growth rates in the actual circuit.
The modification takes the form of a multiplication factor,
ie the distance required to reach a specified diameter as
calculated from Sastry and Fuerstenau’s results is multi-
plied by the ratio of the cross sectional areas of the charge
in the batch and actual drum. This produces as ’effective’
growth rate for the charge in the balling circuit.
The model considers two separate growth stages in the
drum:
4.1. When feed material is present
In this stage the ball charge contains both a ball size
distribution (from the recycle conveyor) plus some fresh
feed material. The growth is modelled by assuming that
stable ’surviving’ seeds are produced at a rate proportional
to both the amount of feed material remaining and the
distance rolled through the drum. The diameters of the
existing balls are assumed to grow at a constant rate
proportional only to the distance rolled.
This simple conceptual model may be formulated in the
following way. Suppose on entry into the drum there is a
volume ~’’ of feed material and N balls from the recycle
conveyor distributed as ~1 with diameter dy (i = 1,..., m), ie
m
N= ni
!-=1 1
...(A3)
Now define the rate of growth of the diameter of
existing balls as
All metre/metre rolled
and the rate at which ’stable seeds are produced with some
assigned diameter, as
M per tonne of feed material per metre rolled
In fact, of course, seeds are produced with a size distribution,
but in keeping with the simplicity of the model this is
ignored here.
If the drum is now divided into a number of increments,
then at the end of the first, when the balls have travelled a
distance 6m (say), the existing balls have grown to a new
diameter (dj + 6 A) for (i = 1,..., m) and there are now
~a,~ .~ = MVpS new balls (ie the seeds) with diameter d~.
The factor p is the density of the feed material. In other
words, on entering the next increment there are (1V ~-~~p~)
balls distributed as ni balls with diameter (di + 5A) for
~i = 1,..., m) and ~T~p~ balls with diameter d~. Further-
more, the amount of fresh feed material in the next incre-
ment is reduced to
7T ’&dquo; 7T 3
~°. ,d~ ..e~~~~~ ’
2 1>j 6 N
Ball growth is assumed to continue in this fashion until
I~’ = 0, at which point the growth moves into the next
stage.
4.2. When no feed material is present
On entry into this stage all the fresh feed material has
been used up. The ball growth is then assumed to take place
by the mechanism proposed by Capes and Danckwerts
(1965b), the smallest ball is crushed and the material
97
redistributed to the surviving balls in proportion to their Using the results of Sastry and Fuerstenau the average
diameter. Obviously, the number of balls crushed and the ball diameter of the charge may be expressed as a function
subsequent growth of the surviving balls is proportional to of the distance rolled, the moisture content and the
the distance rolled by the charge. bentonite level, ie
Here the model calculates the average output diameter
from the distance left to roll in the drum, the average ball ~’‘4V ’°J( L&dquo;‘.5 Vw, d7~ ...
(A6)
diameter on entry to this stage, and the rate of growth where ~ is the distance rolled, W is the moisture content
expected as indicated by the results af ~astry and Fuerstenau and B is the bentonite level. Since the moisture content and
(1972) (Fig 5). The output ball size distribution is then bentonite level may be replaced by an effective moisture
calculated by destroying ball by ball from the smallest content (Sastry and Fuerstenau, 1972),
upwards and redistributing the material to the remainder W ~ = W - 0.~78 . a .
(A7)
in proportion to their diameter. This procedure continues
until the average diameter of the ball size distribution which accounts for the nullifying effects of bentonite on

equals that already calculated. moisture, Eqn (A.6) simplifies to

If, on entry to this stage, there are lt~ balls distributed as dav .f(~’> W *)
=
...
(A8)
trx with diameter di for (i = 1,..., m), then the initial
average diameter is given by Hence, given initial average ball diameter on entry
an
into the second stage and the distance left of roll in the
m
drum, the average output diameter may be evaluated as
d(I) = ~ nidiln
~ ~ ~ ...
(A5)
i=l 1 d33 °’‘.1‘~~~0 + Xl . 1~V~) ...
(A9)

Ftowchart ~ 1

98

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where is the distance left to roll in the drum and xo is the (i) which evaluates the material mass transfer due to the
distance such that crushing and distribution procedure,
rr ~ 11’ k- 1
~~~ =f~~~s~~~’~) ...(A,lt3) 7E ~i~~ ’°°-2 L n~~~~-~x~~)d~
6 I= k i==1i
crushing and redistribution of the material to the
The ie
~-1I
remaining balls is now performed numerically to evaluate 1 m x_iI

y = - 3j=k ~r~- ~ik-l

the output ball size distribution. After the growth has
finished the remaining balls have grown to a new diameter,
ly
=k nid’ j k-I
j £ = nid; i=i
y~~d~3 --- dk-
L nid L Inid*2
t=i 1
nid) ...(A12)
..(Al2)
This gives the distribution of the output, which has an
~ (i’’) ‘ ~i ’~° &dquo;Y~di -.- ~~-1 ~ (i ’ 1 ~ ..., k -1) average diameter d ~~~ and distributed as ni balls with
diameter dr ~- 7 ~d1- d ~ ~ ~ ) for ~i =1, ... , k --- ~).
At the discharge end of the drum those whose diameter
where is a growth constant and (k -1 ) indicates the
smallest class size of remaining balls. These two unknowns exceeds the stated screen size become the product and the
may be directly evaluated from two other conditions: rest, after some renumbering, the undersize return. This
then forms the charge distribution and partakes in further
growth stages.
(i) which defines the already known output average Finally, the data used in these calculations were mainly
diameter, derived from the results of Sastry and Fuerstenau with the
k -I k-I dependence of the (M, A) growth characteristics on the
d a°) k-t
d (Q) ’ I d t2id (9)
i
t°)r k-lE nni,i effective moisture content being given by
t=1
i= 1 J i.-1 i= 1I
~= I(~OO~l7(?7 i~*-- 1606 1)/tonne of feed material/m rolled
k--1I k-lI
A = 0.001 (0.005W* - 0.046825) m/m rolled
&dquo; ~l -~. &dquo;Y~ ~ ~i~i i=1
~ ~i1 ‘° &dquo;Y~k-i
i ... ~~1.1) The elements of the computer program are shown in Flow-
i=1I chart 1.

99

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