Oxygen trim controller tuning during combustion system commissioning

1. A method of tuning an oxygen trim controller during a commissioning process of a combustion control system for controlling operation of a boiler combustion system having a fuel flow control device operatively associated with a burner and an air flow control device operatively associated with the burner and discharging a flue gas, the method comprising:

(a) at a first selected firing rate selecting one of either the servo position of the fuel flow control device or the servo position of the air flow control associated with the selected firing rate point;

(b) defining an excess oxygen content target value for the selected firing rate point;

(c) varying the servo position of the other of the air flow control device or the fuel flow control device until a measured steady-state value of the excess oxygen content in the flue gas falls within a predefined range of a preselected excess oxygen target value associated with the first selected firing rate, thereby establishing a first coordinated set of a first air servo position and a first fuel servo position;

(d) measuring the excess oxygen content in the flue gas while varying the servo position during (c);

(e) establishing a transfer function model for the relationship between excess oxygen content and the first selected firing rate based on the measured excess oxygen contents and the corresponding servo positions from (d);

(f) repeating (a) through (e) for a plurality of selected firing rates;

(g) saving the transfer function models associated with each respective firing rate of the plurality of selected firing rates; and

(h) calculating and saving controller parameters of the oxygen trim controller based on the transfer function models.

2. The method of tuning an oxygen trim controller as recited in claim 1 further comprising determining an average transfer function model over at least two of the plurality of the selected firing rates representative of the plurality of transfer function models associated with the at least two of the plurality of the selected firing rates.

3. The method of tuning an oxygen trim controller as recited in claim 2 further comprising using the average transfer function model to calculate a proportional parameter gain factor for the oxygen trim controller.

4. The method of tuning an oxygen trim controller as recited in claim 2 further comprising using the average transfer function model to calculate an integral parameter gain factor for the oxygen trim controller.

5. The method of tuning an oxygen trim controller as recited in claim 1 wherein the transfer function model has the form of

G ( s )= Ae −Bs /(1+ Cs );

where A is a gain factor constant, B is a time delay, C is a time constant, and s is a Laplace variable.