AUTOMATIC CONTROL of MOISTURE IN FOOD EXTRUDERS1

A computer simulation illustrating the possibility of extrudate moisture control via feedback of die pressure is described. the simulation of a controller, utilizing dead-time compensation, illustrates the advantages of such a control strategy. the sensitivity of the dead-time compensating controller performance to errors in parameter estimation is examined and discussed. This type of predictive control is found to provide a stable control strategy even with very large modeling errors. Such a control system is readily implemented with a microprocessor.