Temperature Control of Reheating Furnace Based On Distributed Model Predictive Control
Temperature Control of Reheating Furnace Based On Distributed Model Predictive Control
4
Control and Computing, Sinaia, Romania, October 17-19, 2014
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communicate their actions in order to handle the coupling inferior sub-zone is obtained by applying a variable ratio
effect of sub-systems and achieve together the optimal sup/inf. The system to be considered consists of five sub-
operation of the overall system [2]. In case of reheating systems as illustrated in Figure 3.
furnace, a dynamic model that considers interaction between In each zone of the furnace, temperature variation at
zones is used to predict the evolution of temperature in a given thermocouple location is modeled by transfer functions
prediction horizon. At each sample time, a criteria that takes considering coupling effects between zones. At level 1 of the
into account temperature tracking performance and energy control system, inputs to each zone are power signal and
saving, is minimized to obtain the optimal control sequence. temperature signal of neighbor zones, the output to be
controlled is zone temperature.
The coupling effect between zones is mainly due to the
flow of exhaust fumes in the opposite direction of slab
movement. In most cases, the coupling is limited to first or
second neighbor. The interactions of furnace zones can be
modeled as output coupling, as shown in Figure 3, or they can
also be modeled by conventional input coupling, as discussed
in [4]. Both methods were tested, but industrial feedback
showed that output coupling method gives more satisfactory
Figure 2. Existing and new structure of control system
results. Therefore, in the following, an output coupling model
is described and used to identify the furnace around a nominal
operation point. The transfer functions of furnace zones are
In [5] and [1], a controller based on MPC is applied to formed as in (1).
reheating furnace (MPC level 1 in [5] and level 2 in [1]). The
furnace is modeled as a multiple-input, multiple-output y1 = H 11u1 + H 12 y 2
(MIMO) system based on energy and mass balances.
Simulation results give significant improvement in terms of y 2 = Η 21 y1 + Η 22 u 22
energy consumption. In [4], authors presented a DMPC
algorithm for systems coupled with inputs. The algorithm is
y 3 = Η 31 y1 + Η 32 y 2 + Η 33 u 3
. (1)
applied to a study case of level 1 in a reheating furnace with y 4 = Η 43 y 3 + Η 44 u 4
three controllable zones and gives significant results in
tracking performances. In [3], an iterative DMPC algorithm y 5 = Η 54 y 4 + Η 55 u 5
developed for systems coupled with output is presented. A
study case for level 1 of reheating furnace is brought out and Where yi = Ti – Tinom and ui = Pi – Pinom, with Ti and Pi, i=1÷5
shows interesting improvements in energy efficiency and are variations of zone temperatures and zone powers,
tracking performance. This paper shows analysis and industrial respectively. Tinom and Pinom are nominal operating temperature
results obtained with DMPC algorithm developed in [3]. To and power of zone i. Observations on industrial furnaces
ensure the self-contained character of the paper, the algorithm showed that the transfer functions Hij are alike to first order
presented in [3] will be described. functions with delay, and static gain, see Figure 4.
In this paper, the problem of minimizing energy Gij
−τ ij s
consumption for the reheating furnace as well as guaranteeing H ij = e . (2)
slab temperature target is tackled by employing DMPC method 1 + λij s
for level 1. The modeling and system identification of the
The delays are approximated by
furnace zones is presented in section II. Distributed algorithm
is presented in section III. Industrial results are discussed in 1
section IV. In section V, steel plant feedback after industrial e −τs = . (3)
1 + τs
implementation is discussed. Conclusions are drawn in section
VI.
Soaking 1 Heating 2 Heating 1 Preheating
u1
I. MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF FURNACE ZONES y2
y1 y1
y3 y4
y2 y3 y4 y5 1
y5
A. Mathematical modeling of furnace zones y1 u4 u5
y2 u3
u2
The considered furnace in this study has five controllable Soaking 2
zones: preheating, heating 1, heating 2, soaking 1, and soaking
5 1 2 3 4
2. The heating zone is quite long, and it is divided into two u1 u2 u3 u4 u5
zones in length in order to have better temperature control. The
soaking zone is divided into two control zones in width to Figure 3. Couplings of furnace zones.
achieve temperature uniformity of slabs through length.
Furthermore, each zone includes superior and inferior sub-
zones. The power demand of superior sub-zone is calculated
by controllers level 1 and the corresponding power demand of
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B. System identification II. DISTRIBUTED MODEL PREDICTIVE CONTROL
To identify the transfer functions of (1), online trials need APPLIED FOR REHEATING FURNACE ZONES
to be performed on the furnace with normal production
conditions. The trials consist in a step signal of zone power A. System modeling and predictions
that is applied to one zone while maintaining constant power The furnace zones transfer functions (1) can be converted
on other zones as well as steady production rate, see Figure 4. to state-space representation as follows.
Afterwards, the temperature variation of the considered zone
will give the direct transfer function Hii of (1), with i=1÷5. The x i (k + 1) = Ai x i (k ) + Bi u i (k ) + ∑ Bij y j (k )
coupling with other zones is obtained from the variation of the j ≠i . (4)
other zone temperature. The tools used for identification are y i (k ) = C i x i (k )
Matlab identification toolbox and method of moments. The
coupling with the neighbor zone temperature is identified with Where {Ci, Ai} is observable for i, j=1÷5. From (4), the
least squares method. predicted zone temperature at time instant k+s of zone
temperature based on output at time instant k can be calculated
C. Models validation as below [4].
Data of several days of furnace operation are used for yˆi (k + s / k ) = Ci Ais xi (k )
offline validation of zone models. Figure 5 shows the dynamics min( s , N u )
of furnaces zone for an entire day, and the identified model fits
correctly the experimental data.
+ ∑C A
p =1
i i
s− p
Biui (k + p − 1 / k ) . (5)
An online tuning is needed when the DMPC operates in s
online mode to adapt the model to the condition of the furnace. + ∑∑ Ci Ais − p Bij yˆ j (k + p − 1 /(k − 1))
j ≠i p =1
The static gains in transfer functions of (1) are usually tuned
accordingly to the nominal operating point of the furnace. s=1÷Np, where Np and Nu are respectively the prediction
horizon and the control horizon. ui (k + p − 1 / k ) is the zone
power at time (k+p-1) calculated at time k. The objective of
control is to minimize tracking errors of zone temperatures and
energy consumption of furnace. Therefore, a local performance
index for zone i can be formulated as follows.
[ ]
Np
p=0
1000
900
the set point temperature of zone i at sample time (k+s),
0 5 10 15 20 ∆u i (k + p) = u i (k + p + 1) − u i (k + p) is the power increment
Heating 1 of zone i at instant (k+p). In a vector form, (5) and (6) can be
1400
reformulated as follows.
(°C)
1300
1200
Yˆi (k ) = Ψi xi (k ) + ΦiiU i (k ) + ∑ ΦijYˆj (k − 1) . (8)
0 5 10 15 20 j ≠i
Heating 2
1400
[
Yˆi ( k ) = yˆ iT ( k + 1 / k ) K yˆ iT ( k + N p / k ) ]T
(°C)
( k ) = [u k )]
1300
T
1200
Where Ui T
i (k / k ) K u iT ( k + N u − 1 ,
[ ]
0 5 10 15 20
T
Ψ i = (C i Ai ) T
N
time (h) K (C i A i ) T p
Figure 5. Validation of zone models: red curve is model data, black curve is
measured data.
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CiBij 0 K 0 C. Design of observer
Ci Bi K 0
M O M CAB CiBij O M Because the only available parameters are powers injected
Φ = i i ij to furnace zones, and zone temperature, an observer is
Φii =Ci AiN −1Bi
u
K , ij M
Ci Bi M O 0
.
M necessary to estimates states variables of zone model which is
M M N −1 N −2 needed to predict zone temperature. Pole placement technique
N −1 N −N Ci Ai Bij Ci Ai Bij
p p
K CiBij
Ci Ai Bi
P
K Ci Ai Bi
p u
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controllers, this effect reduces energy loss to the exhaust fume IV. FEEDBACK FROM INDUSTRIAL PLANT
and contributes to overall energy saving.
The described new control solution has been implemented
Furnace A is configured to work either with DMPC
in industrial conditions and obtained positive feedback from
controllers or PID controllers; Figure 9 shows that the average
furnace team in Florange steel plant. In addition to obtained
energy consumption of the furnace is reduced by using DMPC
energy savings, it was noticed that furnace operation was more
controllers. The online energy saving of 3% is observed by
stable, especially in transient mode (with high productivity
comparing the energy consumption of one month period with
variation). The global gas demand is less disturbed that leads
PID to that with DMPC.
to more stable gas pressure at supply station. Moreover, the
level 2 of control system, which is in closed loop with level 1
(gas pressure and zone temperature measurements are used to
determine the temperature set points), gives more stable set
points and the rate of automatic mode usage of level 2 is
increased compared with manual mode, see Figure 11.
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U imax
−U i min
∑
Yi max − Ψi x i (k ) − Φ ij Yˆ j (k − 1)
bi (k ) = min j ≠i
,
− Yi + Ψi x i (k ) + Φ ij Yˆ j (k − 1)
∑
j ≠i
max
M i
− M imin
I N .n
− I
u ui
N .n u
u imax
ui
u imin y imax
Figure 11. Automatic mode usage of level 2 Φ ii
ai = , U max = M , U imin = M . Yi max = M ,
− Φ ii i
u imax u imin y imax
V. CONCLUSION C
This paper shows the industrial results of a distributed −C
model predictive control (DMPC) applied to the temperature
control of a reheating furnace. Conventional decentralized PID I nui 0 L L 0
controllers are replaced by DMPC controllers. The plant is − I M
modelled considering coupling effects between zones and the y nuii
min
I nui O
model is used to minimization of a quadratic criteria in each Yi min = M ,C = 0 O O O M
zone. The proposed distributed algorithm is solved online, y imin M O O O 0
considers plant constraints and arrives to an equilibrium point
0 L 0 − I nui I nui
in few iterations [3]. Industrial results show energy saving with N u . nui × N u . nui
the same tracking performance than the classical control. ∆uimax + ui (k − 1) ∆ui + ui (k −1)
min
∆uimax ∆uimin
, M imax = , Mi =
min
.
APPENDIX M M
∆uimax ∆uimin
A. Quadratic programming formulation
From (4) and (5) the optimization problem is written as
J i (k ) = U iT (k )(Φ Tii Qi Φ ii + Ri )U i (k )
T
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
+ 2 Ψi x i (k ) + ∑ Φ ij Yˆ j (k − 1) − Yiref (k ) Qi Φ iiU i (k ) . X.M. Nguyen would like to acknowledge the financial
j≠i support of the Group ArcelorMittal.
+ const
(A1)
The QP is given as REFERENCES
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a i U i ( k ) ≤ bi ( k ) (A3)
Where
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