On Development of a Novel Control Scheme for a Thermal Simulation Device

A novel control scheme was proposed in this paper for a thermal simulation device (TSD) to dynamically modify its thermal properties. Rather than controlling either the temperature or heat flow of the device, the proposed control scheme regulates the relation between the temperature and the heat flow in a dynamic fashion. As a result, the controlled TSD will be capable of simulating the thermal behavior of a generic mechanical system in terms of the thermal effects on the heat source. The feasibility of this idea was examined by a simulation study as well as a hardware-in-the-loop experimental study.