PLASMA SPRAY PROCESS ADVANCED CONTROL SYSTEM DESIGN

Plasma spray is a high-throughput, economical and
low environmental impact coating process that can be
used to meet the demanding performance requirements
for turbines, pumps, and emerging biomedical
applications and solid oxide fuel cells. However,
current plasma spray process capabilities are
limited by its significant process variations which
pose challenges for engineering coating structure
for advanced applications as well as optimizing
process yield and economics. This dissertation
investigates the critical issues needed to develop
an advanced plasma spray process control system that
can compensate for these process variations,
including: characterization of different
fluctuations observed in plasma spray process,
development an understanding of the sources of the
dominant variations, the dominant torch input-output
dynamics and nonlinear behaviors of the process, and
the control sensing requirements for detecting these
variations.

Autorentext

Chenhuan Cui, Sr. Project Engineer
Quantum Fuel Technologies Inc. Irvine, CA, U.S.A.

Past:
Software Engineer, The MathWorks Inc., Natick, MA, U.S.A.

Education:
9/2000 - 5/2005 Boston University, Ph.D.,Boston, MA
9/1997 - 3/2000 Zhejiang University, M.Eng., Hangzhou, China
9/1993 - 7/1997 Zhejiang University, B.Eng., Hangzhou, China

Klappentext

Plasma spray is a high-throughput, economical and
low environmental impact coating process that can be
used to meet the demanding performance requirements
for turbines, pumps, and emerging biomedical
applications and solid oxide fuel cells. However,
current plasma spray process capabilities are
limited by its significant process variations which
pose challenges for engineering coating structure
for advanced applications as well as optimizing
process yield and economics. This dissertation
investigates the critical issues needed to develop
an advanced plasma spray process control system that
can compensate for these process variations,
including: characterization of different
fluctuations observed in plasma spray process,
development an understanding of the sources of the
dominant variations, the dominant torch input-output
dynamics and nonlinear behaviors of the process, and
the control sensing requirements for detecting these
variations.