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Abstract: In continuous steel casting plants, it is very important to stabilize the molten steel level in the
mold for quality of the final products and productivity. Standing waves in the mold cause periodic molten
steel level fluctuations, which can deteriorate the product quality and productivity. Nevertheless, there
has not been any effective countermeasure for them, because they are different from other disturbances in
the sense that they are not changes in the flow rate of the molten steel and hence should not be controlled
by manipulating the mass flow. This paper proposes a standing wave model and a mold stabilization
technique that can prevent harmful influence of standing waves. This technique can prevent interactions
between the mold level control and the standing waves in the mold by removing standing wave
components from the original mold level signal. On-line experimental results have shown good
performance and this technique has been in practical use in a continuous steel casting process in JFE.
Keywords: Continuous Caster, Mold Level Stabilization, Steel Industry, Steel-making
(Rackers et al, 1995) and variations in the casting speed and
the tundish weight. In these disturbances, many studies have
been brought for bulging (Asano et al, 1998, Jabri et al, 2008,
Kim et al, 2011). On the other hand, there are few studies for
standing waves.
1. INTRODUCTION
The steel consumption of the world has increased enormously
in the last few years, especially in Asia. To meet this demand,
many studies and developments for the continuous casting
processes have been carried out to increase throughput and
quality of the final products.
Continuous casting is the process whereby molten steel is
solidified into slabs or billets for subsequent rolling processes.
In this process, the molten steel is continuously cast into the
water-cooled mold and the solidified steel is withdrawn from
the underside of the mold in a long strand. The molten steel
level in the mold is controlled around its setpoint by
manipulating the inflow to the mold to maintain the quality of
the products. When the mold level fluctuates significantly,
mold casting powder and other impurities floating on the
surface of molten steel are entrapped in the solidifying steel.
These phenomena have harmful influence on quality of the
final products. Therefore, if the mold level fluctuation is
larger than the acceptable limit, the operators have to
gradually decrease the casting speed, which leads to lower
productivity. In order to prevent these suboptimal situations,
a large number of studies for stabilization of the mold level
have been conducted in recent years (Furtmueller et al, 2006,
Dussud et al, 1998, Kitada et al, 1998).
In general, the disturbances in the mold level control are
classified as periodic and non-periodic (Furtmueller et al,
2008). Periodic disturbances include bulging, standing waves
and oscillations of the mold itself. Non-periodic disturbances
include the collection and discharge of deposits in the nozzle
978-3-902823-42-7/2013 IFAC
430
10.3182/20130825-4-US-2038.00087
Molten
Steel
Ladle
Tundish
Sliding Gate
Mold Level
20
Servo driver
of actuator
SEN
Controller
Mold
Sliding Gate
Level
Sensor
Spray
Secondly
Cooling
Zone
Casting Speed
Roll
10
Set0
-10
-20
200
400
600
800
200
400
600
800
200
400
600
800
70
Open
60
50
40
Close
30
2.5
High
2
1.5
Low1
Time(sec)
60
1
2
PSD(dB)
20
0
-20
-40
0.5
1.5
60
40
m g
l
(1)
PSD(dB)
f =
40
20
0
-20
-40
0.5
1.5
Frequency(Hz)
1st Order
2nd Order
d 2
d (l )
= c
l cos 2 mgl sin m &x&l cos (2)
dt 2
dt
L
tan
2
(3)
c & g
1
+ &x&
m
l
l
(4)
L
hs =
2
H (s)
K n
S x (s) = s
= 2
2
A( s )
s + 2 n n s + n
(5)
Estimated
standing wave
where
a ( t ) = &x&(t )
K =
L
2g
(6)
C
=
2m
L
2g
n =
Standing wave
model
2
s 2 + 2 11s + 1
g
L
PD controller
(7)
n = 2 f n
steel and the friction between the wall and the molten steel
However, this value is difficult to measure, therefore is
adjusted based on mold level simulation results. The angular
frequency ns is calculated by (1) and (7) and the width of the
Mold Level
mold.
hs
10
+
5
Set0
-5
-10
10
Mold Leve l
&x&
l
m
c
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90 100
10
+
5
Set0
-5
-10
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90 100
Time (sec)
432
40
Disturbance
Original signal
PSD(dB)
20
Reference
PI
Controller
Sliding +
Nozzle
Mold
Mold
Level
Standing
Wave
Model
-20
-40
0.5
1.5
ON/OFF
Standing Wave
Observer
Frequency(Hz)
Level
Sensor
G mold ( s ) =
1
s
(7)
(8)
20
100
0
10
5
0
-5
-10
0
(9)
40
60
80
100
120
20
40
60
80
100
120
20
40
60
80
100
120
Casting Speed
(mpm)
K PS + KI
s
20
Time(sec)
GC (s) = K
1.6
0
140
60
M old Level
(mm)
GL
1 + TL s
2
1.8
120
40
2.2
Sliding Gate
(%)
ks
2.2
2
1.8
Sliding Gate
(%)
1.6
0
140
60
140
20
40
60
80
100
120
20
40
60
80
100
120
20
20
40
40
60
60
80
80
100
100
120
120
120
40
M old Level
(mm)
20
100
0
10
5
0
-5
-5
-10
-10
00
Time (sec)
4. EXPERMENTAL RESULTS
Standing wave
model(2nd order)
Estimated
2 nd order
standing wave
PD controller
+
Standing wave
model(3rd order)
Estimated
3 rd order
standing wave
PD controller
Controller
Sliding
Nozzle
PIController
Estimated
1 st order
standing wave
PD controller
Reference
Standing wave
model(1ST order)
Standing
Wave
Observer
Mold
Level
Mold
Level
Sensor
60
1st
PSD(dB)
40
order
2nd
Mold Level
+20
order
3rd order
20
10
Set0
-10
-20
0
-20
10
20
30
40
50
10
20
30
40
50
70
Open
0.5
1.5
Sliding Gate
-40
Frequency(Hz)
60
50
40
Close
30
Time(sec)
434
5. CONCLUSIONS
(a) Mold Level
60
PSD(dB)
40
20
0
-20
-40
0.5
1.5
PSD(dB)
40
20
0
-20
-40
0.5
1.5
REFERENCES
Frequency(Hz)
Asano K., Kaji, T., Aoki H., Ibaraki M., Moriwaki S. (1996),
Robust Molten Steel Level Control For Continuous
Casting. Proc. of the35th Conf. on Decision and Control,
Kobe, Japan. , pp. 1245-1250
Dussud M., Galichet S. and Foulloy L.P. (1998). Application
of fuzzy logic control for continuous casting mold level
control. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems
Technology, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 246252.
Furtmueller C., del Re L. (2006). Control issues in
continuous casting of steel. Proceed of the 17th World
Congress IFAC, Seoul Korea, pp. 700-704.
Furtmueller C., Grucnbacher E. (2008). Suppresion of
Periodic Disturbances in Continuous Casting using an
Internal Model Predictor. IEEE Conference on Control
Application, Munich Germany, pp. 1764-1769.
Jabri K., Bele B., Mouchette A., Dumur E., Godoy E. (2008).
Suppresion of Periodic Disturbances in Continuous
Casting Process. 17th IEEE International Conference on
Control Applications, San Antonio Texas, USA, pp. 9196.
Kitada H., Kondo O., Kusachi H. and Sasame K. (1998).
Hinf control of molten steel level in continuous caster.
IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology,
vol.6 , no. 2 , pp. 200207.
Noda Y., Yano K. Horihata S. Terashima K. (2004). Sloshing
Suppression Control During Liquid Container Transfer
Involving Dynamic Tilting using Wigner Distribution
Analysis. 43rd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control,
Atlantis, Paradise Island, Bahamas, pp. 3045-3052
Rackers K. G. and Thomas B. G. (1995). Clogging in
continuous casting nozzles. 78th Steel making
Conference Proceedings, Iron and Steel Society,
Warrendale, PA, vol. 78, pp. 723-734.
Yano K., Terashima K. (2001). Robust Liquid Container
Transfor Control for Complete Sloshing Suppression.
IEEE Trans. on Control Systems Technology, vol. 9 no. 3,
pp. 91-96
Mold Level
10
Set0
-10
-20
10
20
30
40
50
10
20
30
40
50
Sliding Gate
70
Open
60
50
40
Close
30
Time(sec)
60
PSD(dB)
40
20
0
-20
Power Spectrum
Magnitude (dB)
PSD(dB)
-40
0.5
1.5
60
40
20
0
-20
-40
0.5
1.5
Frequency(Hz)
435