Control of the Amplitude in a Surging Balling Drum Circuit, a New Approach to an Old Problem

In this paper we suggest a new method for controlling the balling drums used in the iron ore industry. We suggest that a cluster of drums are controlled collectively rather than individually. Further, we investigate the possibility of using an extended Kalman filter for estimating the amplitude and frequency of the oscillations in such drums. The filters thresholding point is identified, and the area for which the filter is usable is given. Finally a simulation of the proposed control scheme, based on a simple nonlinear model, is presented.