A novel pressure control method for nonlinear shell-and-tube steam condenser system via electric eel foraging optimizer

Precise pressure control in shell-and-tube steam condensers is crucial for ensuring efficiency in thermal power plants. However, traditional controllers (PI, PD, PID) struggle with nonlinearities and external disturbances, while classical tuning methods (Ziegler-Nichols, and Cohen-Coon) fail to provide optimal parameter selection. These challenges lead to slow response, high overshoot, and poor steady-state performance. To address these limitations, this study proposes a cascaded PI-PDN control strategy optimized using the electric eel foraging optimizer (EEFO). EEFO, inspired by the prey-seeking behavior of electric eels, efficiently tunes controller parameters, ensuring improved stability and precision. A comparative analysis against recent metaheuristic algorithms (SMA, GEO, KMA, QIO) demonstrates superior performance of EEFO in regulating condenser pressure. Additionally, validation against documented studies (CSA-based FOPID, RIME-based FOPID, GWO-based PI, GA-based PI) highlights its advantages over existing methods. Simulation results confirm that EEFO reduces settling time by 22.7%, overshoot by 78.7%, steady-state error by three orders of magnitude, and ITAE by 81.2% compared to metaheuristic based methods. The EEFO-based controller achieves faster convergence, enhanced robustness to disturbances, and precise tracking, making it a highly effective solution for real-world applications. These findings contribute to optimization-based control strategies in thermal power plants and open pathways for further bio-inspired control innovations.