Materials and Design 30 (2009) 34683473

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Materials and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matdes

Simulating the mechanical behavior of a rotary cement kiln

using articial neural networks
K. Pazand a,*, M. Shariat Panahi a, M. Pourabdoli b
a
b

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran 14445, Iran

Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 22 May 2008
Accepted 11 March 2009
Available online 19 March 2009
Keywords:
Rotary cement kiln
Neural networks
Stress distribution
Shell deformation
Finite element method

a b s t r a c t
We present a new approach to the fast determination of structural deformations and stresses in the
refractory-reinforced body of a cement rotary kiln. The proposed approach builds on a comprehensive
neuro-nite element simulation of the kiln shell. Three-dimensional stresses and deformations in the
rotating tubular shell are rst determined for a nite number of input vectors using a validated nite element model of the kiln. The resulting data are then used to train a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) Neural
Network which would predict accurately enough values of stresses and deformations throughout the
kiln body for any given input vector. The resulting neural simulator would serve as a replacement for the
computationally expensive cost-function evaluators that are traditionally used in numerical optimization
algorithms. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach, we analyze a typical rotary kiln
using the Neuro-FE method and compare the results with those obtained from traditional method.
2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
A rotary cement kiln is basically a giant tubular shell structure
with a non-stop, very low rotational speed which is supported by a
number of rolling supports unevenly spaced along the shell. Raw
material (clinker) enters the kiln from one end and travels the
whole length of the nearly horizontal kiln towards the hot end
where the torch is located. The baked material then leaves the
kiln for the cooler where it loses its heat and is made ready for
further processing.
In a uniform-section rotary kiln (as opposed to a variable-section one in which the diameter varies along the shell) the tubular
structure would comprise multiple shell segments of the same
diameter but of various thicknesses welded together to form a
multi-thickness cylindrical shell (Fig. 1).
As the gure shows, the cylindrical body of the kiln is enfolded
at multiple (usually 3 or 4) points by thick steel rings whose inner
diameters exceed the external diameter of the kiln body by some
200400 mm. The rings are attached to the body via a number of
circumferentially spaced radial connectors that operate as torsional shock absorbers. The rings, in turn, are supported by pairs
of rollers symmetrically located under the kiln body [1,2] (Fig. 2).
Maximum deformation in the body occurs in two regions: at
support points where the circular cross-section changes to an oval
one, and between supports where the cross-section remains fairly
circular but the shell deects downwards.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 912 5273015; fax: +98 21 8801 3029.
E-mail address: kpazand@gmail.com (K. Pazand).
0261-3069/$ - see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2009.03.016

To insulate the high-temperature (up to 1600 C) baking chamber and to guard the steel shell against overheating, the inner surface of the shell is reinforced with a refractory lining of variable
thickness. Also in the baking zone of the kiln, a coating layer gradually builds up throughout the life of the kiln. These two layers not
only add to the dead-load (weight) of the shell, but also contribute
to the rigidity of the structure and hence affect the magnitude and
distribution of stresses along the shell body [3,4].

2. Analysis of the kiln shell

To predict the stresses and deformations in the kiln shell, one
needs to develop a reliable model of the kiln body that would reect
its true behavior. So far the methodologies employed for the calculation of stresses and deformations of the kiln body have mostly depended on simplications such as treating the kiln as a static beam
of annular cross-section. Although some recent methodologies have
employed FEM to analyze rotary kilns, none of them has taken into
account the contribution of the inner refractory and coating in the
structures overall rigidity and stress distribution [4].
The procedure outlined above is a costly, time-consuming one.
Since most optimization algorithms require that the above procedure be repeated many times in each the algorithm iteration, one
would have to resort to a simulation technique that could predict,
accurately enough, the stress and deformation quantities at any
given point along the structure. To achieve this, we propose the
use of a neural simulator which would be employed as the evaluation engine of the optimization algorithm.

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K. Pazand et al. / Materials and Design 30 (2009) 34683473

TIRE 1

TIRE 2

TIRE 3

Material inlet

Body

Material outlet
Fig. 1. Schematic of a uniform-section rotary kiln.

use information from this case to illustrate the various steps of

the procedure.
Table 1 contains general specications of the uniform-section
rotary kiln.
Table 2 (partially shown here) represents some quantitative
information about each of the 44 longitudinal regions of the kiln.

3. FE Modeling
This section elaborates on the construction of the FE model and
how its boundary conditions and loadings are set in order to determine the distribution of stress and deformation along the kiln
shell.
3.1. Modeling the shell, the lining, the coating and the passing
material
Fig. 2. Typical kiln rings and supporting rollers.

As could be seen from Table 2, the thickness of the shell varies

along the kiln in response to the varying load, in this case from
28 mm to 65 mm.
The following elements are used to construct the FE model:

Table 1
General specications of the sample kiln.
Magnitude

Valve

Unit

Cold real length

Inner diameter
Number of tires
slop
Degree of roller

71.5
4.8
3
4
30

Meter
Meter
%
Degree

The proposed approach works as follows. First, a nite element

model of the kiln body is created and analyzed for the actual loadings and boundary conditions of the kiln. This model would be
used to generate a set of inputoutput data pairs (topology and
operating conditions as input and stresses and deformations as
output). The generated data would then be used to train a neural
network which would be able to predict the output quantities
for any other input value. Before we proceed further, we would
introduce a typical kiln that would serve as a quantitative test
bed for the proposed approach. In the rest of the paper we will

 Shell 93 with eight nodes, double curvature with six degrees of

freedom at each node is used to model the kiln shell.
 Solid 95 with 20 nodes and three degrees of freedom at attach
node is used to model the refractory, the tires and the lining.
Within the scope of this research, the outer shell is considered
to be isotropic, linearly elastic, with temperature dependent characteristics [6].
A point of interest here is how to model the load from the passing material, as the material is raised by the refractory layer to a
certain angle, determined by the angle of rupture of the bulk material, and then allowed to pour down while traveling towards the
kiln outlet. Since the passing material neither interacts with any
of the structural layers nor contributes to the stiffness or the rigidity of the shell, its weight could be modeled as a distributed load. A
simplied model is employed to derive a formula for this distributed load (Fig. 3).

Table 2
Various zones along the kiln.
Region

From (mm)

To (mm)

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

1000
2000
5000
6000
7000
8000
10,000
10,600
11,440

1000
2000
5000
6000
7000
8000
10,000
10,600

Coating PRESENCE

Sheet thickness (mm)

Refractory thickness (mm)

28
28
28
28
28
28
50
65
65

250
250
250
250
250
250
250
250
250

Lining thickness (mm)

Material load (N/mm)

4900
4900
4900
4900
4900
4900
4900
4900
4900

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K. Pazand et al. / Materials and Design 30 (2009) 34683473

F n 0 Thdg  P0 rdg  dmg cos g 0



X
cosh=2
F t0 T q0 rg l sin g cos g 
cos a
0
0
dm q h:1  rdg q hrdg

1


cosh=2
r
cosa  g

The load from the refractory becomes:


P r q0 g 1 

P 0 hq0 g cos g a  h=2 6 g 6 a h=2

in which P 0 represents the material load on the refractory per unit
length of the kiln body and h represents the material height at an
angle g with the vertical axis.



cos 2h
cos 2h
l sin g 
cosa  g
cos a

This, when added to the weight of the refractory itself, makes the
total load on the shell:

Fig. 3. Passing material and its equivalent loading.

Fig. 4. Individual load and temperature distributions along the sample kiln.

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K. Pazand et al. / Materials and Design 30 (2009) 34683473

PTotal

8


h
>
< 1 pt qgp  g q0 gr l sing  cos 2 1 
2

cosa

>
:

1
2

ptqgp  g

cos 2h

9
>
=

a  2h 6 g 6 a 2h

cos ag

>
g in the other point ;

This is the distributed load used in the FE analysis of the tubular

shell (Fig. 4).
3.2. Mesh renement
To determine the optimum size and number of the elements in
both the circumferential and longitudinal directions, a number of
experiments were conducted with various mesh topologies.
Expectedly, it was concluded that too ne a mesh would exponentially increase the computational cost of the analysis and too
coarse a mesh would sacrice the accuracy of the results [5,7].
For our sample kiln, the optimum mesh was found to comprise
24 circumferential elements and 44 longitudinal ones (Fig. 5). Finer
meshes showed to improve the results only negligibly.
3.3. Boundary conditions
Dening the origin at the center of the kilns inlet cross-section,
the z-axis along the longitudinal axis of the shell, the y-axis

running vertically upwards and the x-axis coming out horizontally,

we observe that a typical point on the shell is free to translate in zdirection (longitudinal expansion) and y-direction (deection) and
to rotate around x -axis (due to vertical deection of the shell).
Other degrees of freedom, including translation along x and rotations around y and z-axes are constrained (Fig. 6.)
3.4. Analysis results
As depicted in Fig. 7, the maximum stress develops somewhere
between the rst and the second supports where the shell deects
downwards by 2.1 mm. The same gure shows the distribution of
Von-Mises equivalent stress on the inner surface of the refractory
as well. The refractory and shell are over-stressed in region near
the tires.
As the kiln rotates, the shell segments experience a variable
stress which oscillates between a minimum and a maximum value.
The true values of these stresses can only be calculated by a 3-D
FEM model, like the one presented in this paper. The distribution
of minimum and maximum stress values in various regions of
the kiln shell is illustrated in Fig. 8. It can be seen that the stress
level is maximum at and near the support rings (tires). This is
mainly because the Hertzian stress predominates in those regions.
Fig. 9 shows the circumferential displacement distribution along
the kiln.

Fig. 5. Finite element model of the shell body.

Fig. 7. Graphical presentation of stress distribution along the kiln.

12

Min.stress

Stress(MP)

10

Max.stress

8
6
4
2
0
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Length (m)
Fig. 6. Boundary conditions for the FE model.

Fig. 8. Distribution of the Von-Mises equivalent stress along the kiln.

80

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K. Pazand et al. / Materials and Design 30 (2009) 34683473

Table 3
Comparison between simulation and experimental results.

Deflection
Deflection(mm)

2.5

Point

Results

FEM

EXP.

Error

1.5

0.5

Stress (MPa)
Displacement (mm)
Stress (MPa)
Displacement (mm)
Stress (MPa)
Displacement (mm)

9.86
7.89
9.37
5.03
11.6
4.3

10.3
8.2
9.81
5.8
12.5
4.7

0.044
0.039
0.046
0.150
0.077
0.090

10

20

30

40
50
Length(m)

60

70

80

Fig. 9. Distribution of displacement along the kiln.

tor which would be employed as the evaluation engine of the optimization algorithm (see Table 3).

3.5. Validating the model

4.2. Why neural networks?

To ensure the validity of the FE model, results from the above

model were compared with the actual, measures results. The measurements were taken from the plant logs that contained, among
other parameters, the values of strains, deections and loads at
some critical points of the shell. These measurements are taken
on a regular basis and are averaged over certain periods of time.
Strain gauges, load cells and optical probes are used to measure
these quantities on a regular basis which are then averaged over
certain periods of time and recorded to enable maintenance engineers to monitor the thermo-mechanical behavior of the kiln and
to prevent possible overloading of the rotating shell. Comparison
between simulation results and experimental ones at 12 measurement points showed an average error of 4.6% which indicates a
good correlation between the model and the actual system.
With the FE model having been validated, it was now time for
the stresses and deformations to be calculated along the shell for
various input vectors (locations of the kilns three supports where
it slowly rotates atop supporting rollers). The model was analyzed
90 times for various, randomly generated, input vectors, and
resulting stresses and deformations were recorded for each case.
This data was used in training and testing the neural net as elaborated later in the following sections.

Neural Networks are powerful data modeling tools that are

capable of capturing and representing complex input/output relationships. The motivation for the development of neural network
technology stemmed from the desire to develop an articial system that could perform intelligent tasks similar to those performed by the human brain.
The true power and advantage of neural networks lies in their
ability to represent both linear and nonlinear relationships and in
their ability to learn these relationships directly from the data
being modeled, a task traditional models cannot achieve, especially
when it comes to systems of highly nonlinear nature [8].
The most common neural network model is the Multi-Layer
Perception (MLP). MLPs have shown to successfully approximate
the nonlinear mapping from the input space to the output space
using historical data so that the model can then be used to accurately produce the output for new inputs. To train the network,
we use Back Propagation, which basically tries to minimize an error function based on the differences between the actual- and the
desired output values [9,10].
The accuracy and the generalization power of a MLP is directly
affected by its topology, that is the number of its hidden layers, the
number of articial neurons in each layer and the transfer function
employed at each neuron [9]. There are no universal rules for
determining the optimum topology for a MLP and tuning such
a net is carried out mostly empirically [10]. Our experiments with
different network topologies resulted in the choice of a MLP with
one hidden layer, four neurons in this layer and tansig transfer
functions in all hidden neurons. Specications of the selected network are presented in Table 4.

4. Neural approximation
4.1. The inevitability of approximation
The purpose of this research is to provide fast and reliable
means for the optimum design of cement rotary kilns. These kilns
are basically tailor-made for specic working conditions and
therefore virtually no two kilns are the same from a thermomechanical viewpoint. This means that experimental data from
one existing kiln cannot be reliably used to predict the exact thermo-mechanical behavior of another; and simulation is the only
affordable means the designer has at his/her disposal in the design
phase.
As mentioned earlier, on the other hand, the traditional simulation methods (such as FEM itself) are costly and tediously timeconsuming. Since most optimization algorithms require that the
simulated system be analyzed many times at each iteration of
the algorithm,1 it would be virtually impossible to use the simulated system and one would have to resort to an approximation
technique that could predict, quickly and accurately enough, the
stress and deformation quantities at any given point along the
body shell. To achieve this, we propose the use of a neural simula-

1
For instance, in a typical run of a simple, unconstrained Genetic Algorithm with a
population size of 100 running for 1000 generations, the model has to be modied
and analyzed 105 times.

5. Analysis results
As mentioned earlier, a total of 90 (inputoutput) data sets
were used to train and test the constructed neural network; 70 sets
for training the network and 20 sets for testing it. Once the training
was concluded, an overall Mean Square Error of less than 4% was
achieved over the test data sets; meaning that the neural net
was now capable of fairly accurately replicating the numerical
model of the kiln.
To get a avor of how reliable the neural approximation could
be, results from the FE model and the trained neural net are compared in Table 5 for three randomly selected input vectors. The
comparison shows that the network has a good generalization

Table 4
Characteristics of the constructed network.
Momentum

Rate learning

Average error

Number of hidden layer

0.08

0.0323

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K. Pazand et al. / Materials and Design 30 (2009) 34683473

Table 5
Comparison of FEM and neural simulation results.
Results

FEM

ANN

Error

First ring (m)

Second ring (m)

Third ring (m)

Stress (MPa)
Displacement (mm)
Stress (MPa)
Displacement (mm)
Stress (MPa)
Displacement (mm)

9.86
7.89
9.37
5.03
11.6
4.3

11.1
8.1
9.6
5.6
12.01
4.2

0.12
0.026
0.024
0.1
0.035
0.02

10.2
10.2
10
10
9
9

43.6
43.6
42.4
42.4
44.2
44.2

64.6
64.6
62.6
62.6
63

Table 6
Time comparison of FEM and neural simulation results.
Description

FEM

ANN

Time of modeling
Time of running
Time of new modelling with variation in ring

120140 h
13 h
12 h

2060 h
0.00030.0005 h
0.060.09 h

power which means it is well capable of replicating the FE simulation and hence predicting the maximum stress and deection at
any point along the shell for unprecedented input vectors.
Solving the validated neural model of the kiln body (complete
with its refractory, coating layers and the passing material), the
distribution of the Von-Mises equivalent stress on the kiln shell
for the fore-mentioned loading and boundary conditions was
determined and is illustrated in Fig. 5.
6. Summary and conclusions
A new methodology for the fast and reliable determination of
the performance characteristics of rotary kilns was presented.
The methodology builds on the following postulations.
(1) No numerical model of the kiln shell will be able to yield
realistic results unless it takes into account the effect of
refractory and coating layers on the rigidity of the structure
and the distribution of stress along it.
(2) An accurate approximation of the simulation results is inevitable if the global optimality of the nal design is not to be
compromised for the computational cost of the newer, more
efcient optimization tools.
Based on these, a complete model of the kiln body was created
and validated using data from a local cement plant. The validated

model was then analyzed for a nite number of input vectors

and the resulting inputoutput data sets were used to train and
test a Multi-Layer Perceptron (Neural Network). The resulting neural model could now predict, accurately and rapidly, the values of
the two mechanical characteristics of a newly designed kiln body,
namely the maximum stress and deformation at any desired section of the shell and hence enable the designer to adjust the design
parameters accordingly (see Table 6).
As a potential application of the proposed methodology, this
neural approximation would be employed in an optimization scenario to identify the optimum locations of the support locations in
the design of a new rotary kiln. To illustrate the applicability of the
proposed approach, it was applied to an actual, industrial case of a
rotary kiln. Comparison of the Neural predictions with those of the
traditional methods (presented below for this typical case) shows
that the proposed approach can achieve more accurate results in
less time.
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