Application of Optimization Theory to the Control of the Optical Fiber Drawing Process

Application of Optimization Theory to the Control of the Optical Fiber Drawing Process By D. H. S M I T H G A L L (Manuscript received January 15, 1979) The optical fiber drawing process is examined and a feedback control loop identified. The incremental dynamic response of each loop component is determined, and the sensitivity of loop response to system parameters is examined. The control loop is optimized, based upon a mean square error criterion with constraints imposed for periodic disturbances. An expression is derived for the effectiveness of the control loop with respect to sources of system disturbance and found to correlate well with experimental results.