Comprehensive mathematical modelling in the management of physical and chemical processes during the transportation of concrete mixtures

The paper presents a comprehensive mathematical model and adaptive control system for predicting and maintaining the quality of concrete mix during its transportation in the drums of truck mixers. The purpose of the study is to bridge the gap between detailed physical and mathematical models and operational control tasks in dynamic conditions. The developed software package demonstrated high accuracy in predicting hydration kinetics (RMSD = 1.0%) and moisture content (RMSD = 2.0%). It has been shown that optimising the control action allows the drum rotation speed to be reduced by 86.7% (to 2 min-1). This results in an 85% reduction in the cost function and an estimated 42% reduction in energy consumption without compromising the quality of the mixture. A comprehensive approach makes it possible to move from passive modelling to active control of concrete mix quality during transportation. This is confirmed by the analytical dependencies identified and the results of computational experiments.