ARTICLE IN PRESS

Control Engineering Practice 11 (2003) 13251334

A hybrid approach for supervisory control of furnace temperature

Wei Wanga, Han-Xiong Lib,*, Jingtao Zhangc
a
b

Advanced Control Research Center, Dalian University of Technology, 116023, Peoples Republic of China
Department of Manufacturing Engineering & Engineering Management, Faculty of Science & Engineering,
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
c
Research Center of Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110006, Peoples Republic of China
Received 21 February 2002; accepted 3 November 2002

Abstract
The temperature control of the reheat furnace is very difcult due to its complex characteristics. Based on expert knowledge and
pyrology mechanism, a hybrid supervisory control system (an optimal setting model) has been developed innovatively to control its
temperature. With the help of a statistical process controller, this hybrid supervisory control system can replace the human operator
for most of operations in the process. Since an expert compensator is designed to suppress the external disturbance, the proposed
model can automatically update the optimal set-point value for the furnace temperature of each zone under the varying boundary
conditions. Both simulation and industrial experiment show the viability and effectiveness of the suggested model and its bright
application foreground in thermal process.
r 2002 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Reheat furnace; Temperature control; Supervisory control; Expert system

1. Introduction
In order to meet with the technical requirement,
billets usually are reheated in reheat furnace before
sending to the rolling machine. The billet reheating
process is affected by many elements, such as, steel type
p; steel grade g; rolling rhythm v; furnace pressure FP;
insulation condition of furnace, etc. All these factors
vary between different processes, and are considered
as boundary conditions of the billet. There are also
many hidden variables affecting the process, which are
very difcult or impossible to measure and thus
impossible to control. One of examples is the oxidation
loss happens on the billet surface while heating in the
furnace, which will affect the product quality though
immeasurable.
Practically, the reheating process is controlled by the
distributed control system (DCS) widely used in the
industry. The DCS-based process control has the local
(lower) level and the higher level (Lennartson et al.,
1996). Since the control algorithms employed in local
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +852-27888435; fax: +852-27888423.
E-mail address: mehxli@cityu.edu.hk (H.-X. Li).
0967-0661/03/$ - see front matter r 2002 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 6 7 - 0 6 6 1 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 2 5 7 - 5

control loops, such as PID control, auto-tuning control,

predictive control and fuzzy control, etc., are well
developed, a satisfactory performance is always
achieved in local loop. However, the overall performance of the process may not satisfy the technical
requirement due to the complexity of process. The
human operator is often employed on the industrial site
to select the proper set points for local control loop.
First, all boundary conditions are classied into
different groups called operation modes in this paper.
Through extensive experiments, a proper operating
point is found for each operation mode. During the
reheating process, the values of control variables of the
relevant operating point will be taken as the set points of
DCS for the billets with the matched boundary
conditions. Since each operation mode may have several
different boundary conditions, the control accuracy
will be limited by the operation mode classication. On
the other hand, if the number of operation modes is
more than what we can experiment, their appropriate
operating points have to be found out via the
interpolation or human experience. This human
supervision is clearly a coarse control, which may not
have a consistent performance and a well management

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W. Wang et al. / Control Engineering Practice 11 (2003) 13251334

1326

of the fuel waste and heavy oxidation loss on the

billet surface. A better high-level supervision and
control is required to maintain the satisfactory performance under variations of boundary conditions (Fred
Shenvar, 1994).
Though Ko attempts to design a multivariable
controller with the system identication technique and
predictive control algorithm for reheating furnace
(Hyun Suk, Ko et al., 2000), however, it is hard to
obtain the accurate mathematical model of the reheating
process (Lu & Williams, 1983) for the conventional
control theory to work in practice. On the other hand,
the intelligent control methods, like fuzzy control,
neural network and knowledge engineering have been
applied to control the complex industrial processes due
to their loose requirement on the process model, and
their capability to use human experience (Jagannathan,
1994; Lu, He, & Xu, 1997; Wang, Gao, & Wang, 1997).
Therefore, these intelligent methods are suitable to
develop the process control model for the billet
reheating process that is usually supervised by the
human operator (Li & Guan, 2001).
This paper presents a hybrid supervisory control
system for the optimal temperature control of the reheat
furnace based on expert knowledge and pyrology
mechanism. The developed control model can replace
the human operator by auto searching the proper
operating points for the reheating process under
variations of boundary conditions. The preset module
based on expert knowledge and pyrology mechanism
can calculate the optimal preset value of furnace
temperature set point of each zone under different
operation modes. Many other variations to the
process are also considered and handled via several
auxiliary modules, such as, dynamic revision, on-line
auto learning and waiting rolling strategy, etc. With
the help of a statistical process controller (SPC),
this hybrid expert supervisory control system can
replace the human operator in the process, and
successfully nd the proper operating point of each
operation mode. Both simulation and industrial experiment show the viability and effectiveness of the
suggested model, and its bright application foreground
in reheating process.

2. Walking beam reheat furnace system

2.1. System description
The simplied structure of the whole walking beam
reheat furnace is shown in Fig. 1 to have ve temperature zones, i.e. low heat zone, high heat zone and three
soak zones (left soak zone, middle soak zone, right soak
zone). Burners are set in the down chamber under billets
in low heat zone, and in the upper chamber above billets
in other zones. The billet will be heated from initial
temperature Tin (201C) to end (desired) temperature Te
(110012001C) according to different steel type, steel
grade and rolling rhythm. The inlet temperature Tin of
furnace is measured by a thermal resistor, the outlet
(end) temperature Tem is measured by an infrared
pyrometers, and temperature of each zone T1m 2T5m
are measured by thermal couples mounted there. The
plant operation can be briey described as below.
*

First, the billet is fed into the furnace by the input

steel device with the help of walking structure
composed by the movable and the xed beam.
Then, it moves through low heat zone (preheated
zone), high heat zone and soak zone successively to
have a full and even heating.
Finally, it moves to the rolling line by the output steel
device when the billet temperature reaches the rolling
temperature.

2.2. Model of heat conduction

The inner heat conduction of the billet can be
modeled by the following equation (Hyun Suk, Ko
et al., 2000).



@Tr; t 1 @2 Tr; t 1 @Tr; t

;
1
@t
a
@r2
r @r
where T is the billet temperature (1C), r is vacuum
discrete position, t is time variable, and a is the
coefcient related with the steel specic density r and
the steel special heat cp :
The boundary condition of the above equation may
be described as the conductive and radiative conduction

final
billet

Tem

FP

T4m

T1m
T2m

Tin
soak zone

high heat zone

low heat zone

original
billet

T3m

Recuperator
T5m
Fig. 1. Simplied structure of the reheat furnace.

M
Flue

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W. Wang et al. / Control Engineering Practice 11 (2003) 13251334

from furnace wall and furnace gas. If the billet is divided

into N units in radial, the boundary condition may be
described as follows:
dTN t
AN hgs Tg  TN eg sFsg Tg4  TN4
dt
@Tr; t
;
ew sFsw Tw4  TN4  KAN1
@r

internal changes in the reheating process as small

disturbance and expressed as an unobservable vector
Os ; which includes:
*
*

where AN1 ; AN is the billet surface area on N  1th

and Nth unit, hgs is convective heat conductivity from
furnace gas, Tg is furnace gas temperature (1C), TN is
billet surface temperature on Nth unit (1C), Tw is
furnace wall temperature (1C), eg; ew is blackness
coefcients of furnace gas and furnace wall, Fsg; Fsw is
form divisor from furnace gas and furnace wall, s is
Stefan Boltzman constant, and K is constant coefcient.
The above function can be transferred into discrete
functions so that we can nd solutions of inner
temperature distribution of the billet via the iterative
algorithm. The optimal furnace temperature distribution can be calculated to minimize energy consumption
as the performance index. The complex boundary
conditions make the model difcult for the real-time
control, but it can be simplied for simulation.

2.3. Operation modes and control targets

In the reheating process, the operation mode is mainly
dened by steel type p; steel grade g; billet original
temperature Tin and the rolling rhythm v: The original
temperature Tin of the billet is known and constant for
each reheat furnace. Therefore, the operation mode is
determined mainly by p; g and v: These three boundary
conditions can be regarded as measurable disturbances
that have more inuence to the reheating process. Other
boundary conditions will be treated together with other

2.4. Operation model of the reheating process

The reheating process of the furnace in Fig. 1 can be
considered as two sub-process, the uncontrollable model
P1 and the complex model P2 ; in Fig. 2. The measurable
disturbance Dp; Dg and Dv; due to the variance of steel
type, steel grade and rolling rhythm, inuence the

p g v

Decision making

P1

Operating Abnormal Waiting

conditions
rolling
judgement
management
normal

T1~T5

Expert
Presetting

Dynamic
Revision

On-line
Learning

Tem

Reheating
process
s

T10~T50

Expert
Inference
Revision

Perception

the insulation condition of furnace body;

the furnace pressure FP;
the condition change of heat conduction inside
furnace;
the physical/chemical reaction in the billet itself (e.g.
the oxidation sheet-iron loss).

The end temperature Tem of the billet, which greatly

affects the rolling quality of the billet, is one of the key
control targets to the reheating control. Even after the
billet nishes the heating, there is always a temperature
difference between surface and center of the billet,
which is called sectional temperature difference DTSC :
To have a satisfactory mechanical property of the nal
product, the sectional temperature difference should be
controlled within the permitted value and to be zero
ideally.
Thus, the nal control targets of the walking beam
reheat furnace are the billet end temperature Tem and the
sectional temperature difference of the billet DTSC : To
have the satisfactory performance, the controllable
variables in the reheating process are furnace temperature T1 2T5 at each zone.

Human operator
rolling-line
information
p
g
v

1327

T1m~T5m

DCS

P2
Tem

Coil
Coil

Tem

Fig. 2. Operation of the DCS controlled reheating process with human supervision.

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1328

reheating process through the model P1 : The unmeasurable

disturbance Os affects the reheating process through
the model P2 : To eliminate the inuence from variations
of the boundary conditions, a supervisory control
system is required at the higher level to maintain
the satisfactory process outputs Tem and DTSC by
choosing the optimal set points of DCS control
variables T1 2T5 under disturbances Dp; Dg; Dv; and
Os : The steel type p; steel grade g; rolling rhythm v;
desired billet end temperature Te and control variables
T1 2T5 compose an operating point for each operation
mode. The control variables T1 2T5 in the operating point are set points of DCS T10 2T50 for a
coarse control of reheating process. The operation
mode combines with the rolling-line information
(e.g. the rolling-line state) to constitute operation
condition.
Traditionally, the human operator on manufacturing site determines proper set-point values for control
variables. This human supervised reheating operation
with DCS is schematically illustrated in Fig. 2, with
human control procedure briey summarized as:

3. Optimal setting model of furnace temperature

If the boundary conditions can be maintained to be
invariant, then the proper operating point can be found
in a short time. Unfortunately, many disturbances
(measurable or unmeasurable) exist on manufacturing
site and make it very difcult for operator to obtain the
proper operating point. To improve the supervisory
performance, the automatic control system need to be
developed. Since the furnace reheating process is a
multivariable control system with the extremely complex
properties, consisting of the uncontrolled process P1 and
the unmodelled process P2 ; the conventional control
methods are not suitable for this higher-level control.
On the other hand, intelligent technology (Lu et al.,
1997; Wang et al., 1997; Li & Guan, 2001) will be a good
candidate for this unmodelled process. The experience
and knowledge of the human operator provide a good
qualitative model for the supervisory system, which can
easily be imitated by the expert supervisory control
system. The supervisory control system that replaces the
human operator is actually a hybrid expert control
system as illustrated in Fig. 3 and discussed in detail
below.

Step 1decide the operating condition; if it is abnormal,

go to Step 6, otherwise go to Step 2;
Step 2obtain furnace temperature preset values based
on expert knowledge under different operation modes;
Step 3update the above preset values according to the
temperature difference of billet at the end of each zone;
Step 4update the furnace temperature set-point value
of each zone according to the billet end temperature
difference at the furnace outlet;
Step 5on-line learning to accumulate the expert
knowledge from the real-time operation;
Step 6determine the optimal temperature set-point
value for each zone under waiting rolling state according
to state of the Rolling-line and time for stopping or
waiting rolling.

(1) A SPC system to simulate the human perception of

input signals;
(2) A supervisory control system to simulate the
expertise and knowledge of experienced operator
for decision making;
(3) An expert compensator to compensate the effect of
the variation of boundary conditions.

3.1. Expert compensator

Three main boundary conditions are p; g and v: Their
variance Dp; Dg and Dv are major disturbance for the
p2

g2
+

p1

v2
+

g1 -

+
v1 -

Expert
T10~T50

compensator
Te +

Tem
-

Supervisory
control system

T10~T50

DCS-control
system

T1m~T 5m, Tem, Coil

Coil

T1~T5

Tem

T1S~T5S

SPC
Human operator

Fig. 3. Structure of hybrid supervisory control system with expert compensation.

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1329

Table 1
Expert compensatory values for furnace temperature setting
Steel grade g

Steel type p (mm)

Rolling rhythm v (m/min)

Furnace temperature adjustment value

DT10

DT20

DT30

DT40

DT50

Low carbon

1 (115  115  1250)

Fastest v > 0:9

Fast 0:7ovo0:9
Normal 0:5ovo0:7
Slow 0:4ovo0:5
Slowest vo0:4

+10
+5
0
15
25

+10
+5
0
15
25

+10
+5
0
15
25

+20
+10
0
20
35

+10
+5
0
10
15

Low alloy

2 (120  120  1250)

Fastest v > 0:9

Fast 0:7ovo0:9
Normal 0:5ovo0:7
Slow 0:4ovo0:5
Slowest vo0:4

+20
+10
+5
10
20

+20
+10
+5
10
20

+20
+10
+5
10
20

+35
+25
+15
15
30

+15
+10
0
5
15

3.3. Supervisory control system(the optimal setting

model)

compensator to handle as shown in Fig. 3.

Dp p2  p1 ;

Dg g2  g1

and

Dv v2  v1

with p1 ; g1 and v1 the steel type, steel grade and rolling

rhythm of the previous billet, and p2 ; g2 and v2 the
steel type, steel grade and rolling rhythm of the current
billet.
The other small disturbance Os can be neglected based
on the assumptions of the robustness of the expert
supervisory control system. The physical analysis and
experience accumulation show that revised values
DT10 2DT50 of the furnace temperature setting can be
summarized partially in Table 1.

The supervisory control system(the optimal setting

model) can simulate the experienced operator for
choosing the optimal temperature set-point value at
each zone. For the decision-making of human operator
mainly includes six aspects, the optimal setting model of
furnace temperature is also designed to have functions
of these six modules. The schematic diagram of the
optimal setting model of furnace temperature is shown
as Fig. 4. The symbols and variables in Fig. 4 are dened
as below.
ui

3.2. Statistical process control

What the operator perceives from the reheating
process has moving average features. Therefore, the
end temperature Tem of the billet, the fuel oil consumption Coil and the furnace temperature of each zone
T1 2T5 should be processed statistically in (3) before
feeding into the supervisory control system (Chen, Mc
Avoy, & Piovoso, 1998).
Tem

K
X

Temi =K;

i1

Coil

K
X

Coili =K;

i1

Tj

K
X

Tjmi =K; j 1; 2; 3; 4; 5;

the furnace temperature value of each zone

(1C); i 125
Dui
the furnace temperature preset revised
value of each zone (1C)
0
ui
the optimal furnace temperature set-point
value of each zone on waiting rolling time
(1C)
ui
the optimal furnace temperature set-point
T10 2T50 value of each zone under normal operating
condition
T10 2T50
the set-point value of DCS for lower level
furnace temperature control loop of each
zone
DT10 2DT50 the change value of furnace temperature
set-point at each zone (1C).
The corresponding relationships between the decisionmaking of the human operator and the optimal setting
model are shown in Table 2.

i1

where Temi expresses the billet end temperature on ith

sampling; Coili expresses the heavy oil consumption in
ith hour; Tjmi refers to the furnace temperature
measurement value of each zone on ith sampling; K is
the number of the sampling.

3.3.1. Preset module (expert presetting)

The preset module can provide the proper preset
value of set-point for furnace temperature at each zone
ui i 125 based on either expert knowledge or
pyrology mechanism under static state. This module is
composed of two sub-parts: preset expert rule base and
pyrology mechanism model.

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1330

rolling line information

p
g
v

waiting rolling information

Waiting Rolling
Strategy Module

Abnormal
operating
condition

rolling line
information

T1~T5

Operating
Condition
Decision
Module

p
g
v
T1~T5

Soft Measurement
Inference Module

Supervisory
Control System
ui

Normal
operating
condition

Preset Module
(Hybrid expert knowledge
and pyrology mechanism)

(i=1~5)
ui
+

Dynamic Revision
Module

T10~T50
ui* T1S~T5S

Reheat
DCS

Furnace

+
+

On-line
Auto Learning
Module

ui

Process

T10~T50
Expert
Compensator

p
g
v

Tem

T10~T50

Coil

Coil

T1m~T5m

SPC
Te

Tem

Tem

Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of the optimal setting model (the supervisory control system).

Table 2
Corresponding relationships between human decision-making and the
optimal setting model
Human decision-making

Optimal setting model

Operating conditions
judgement
Waiting rolling management
Expert presetting

Operating conditions decision

module
Waiting rolling strategy module
Preset module (hybrid expert
knowledge and pyrology
mechanism)
Soft measurement inference
module
Dynamic revision module
On-line auto-learning module

Expert inference revision

Dynamic revision
On-line learning

be described as the quadratic equation with the heating

time of the billet (Zhang, 1992).
ut d et ft2 ;

where ut expresses the furnace temperature and t refers

to the heating time of the billet.
Eq. (4) must t the following boundary conditions:
(a)
t ti ; uli pd eti ft2i pu2i ;
(b)

1
PTm te  Tmn te
2
2

Z te
1
1
2
2
ut ;
QTS te  Tc te
R
2
2 t0

min J min
Preset expert rule base: This is developed from the
optimum expertise rule accumulated by the autolearning module. When a new operation mode comes
in, the preset module rst loop up from preset expert
rule base the suitable temperature preset values for it.
If there are no suitable preset values for the current
operation mode, the pyrology mechanism model has to
be used to calculate the optimal temperature preset
value of each zone.
Pyrology mechanism model: This model is used to
calculate the optimal furnace temperature preset value
of each zone only when the operation mode cannot be
found in the preset expert rule base. Based on the
pyrology mechanism, the furnace temperature can be
described as the quadratic equation with the furnace
length. Since the rolling rhythm v is stable in operation,
the heating time of the billet is proportional to the
furnace length. Thus, the furnace temperature can also

where te is the end time for heating the billet, Tm te the

average predictive temperature of the billet at te ; Ts te
the predictive temperature of the billet surface at te ;
Tc te the predictive temperature of the billet center at te ;
Tm te the average predictive temperature of the billet
under control at te ; P; Q; R P; QbR are weighted
coefcients that are selected from experiment: P 1;
Q 1; R 0:001:
The temperatures Tm ; Ts and Tc are calculated as
follows (Zhang, 1992).


km Dt 2 P

Tm k 1 Tm k
sFfTe x; k Dt
Cp r l A
273
4  Ts k 273
4 g;

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W. Wang et al. / Control Engineering Practice 11 (2003) 13251334

h
sFfTe x; k Dt 273
4
ks l
 Ts k 273
4 g;
h
Tc k 1 Ts k 1 
sFfTe x; k Dt 273
4
kc l
 Ts k 273
4 g;
Ts k 1 Tm k 1

where Tm 0 Ts 0 Tin ;
r
Cp
l
h
F
l
P
A
s
km ; ks ; kc

steel specic density

steel special heat
heat conductivity of steel
billet thickness
general term absorptivity
billet length
sectional perimeter
sectional area of billets
Stefan Boltzman constant
experimental adjustment parameter by trial
for calculating Tm ; Ts ; Tc
k
sampling time
Dt
sampling interval
Te x; kDt furnace temperature measurement value on the
outlet of the reheating furnace at kth sampling.

The boundary condition (a) gives the ideal distribution of the furnace temperature on some important
position Sti : The boundary condition (b) provides the
technical requirement for heating quality of billets based
on the minimum fuel consumption. Through optimization of Eq. (4)d  ; e and f  ; the optimal furnace
temperature distribution under static state is given as
ut d n en t f n t2 ;

Step 2Compare Tsi with the actual surface temperature at each zone T1 2T5 to generate the correction value
DTes :
n
Step 3The actual temperature of the billet Tmi
at the

end of each zone is updated as: Tmi Tmi kDTes
(0oko1; k is constant coefcient).

Step 4The difference between Tmi
and the specied
temperature prole at each zone is dened as DTmi; ;
which is the compensatory value to preset-value of the
furnace temperature at each zone.

3.3.3. Dynamic revision module

Based on the difference DTem between the measured
nal temperature Tem of the billet and the billet target
temperature Te ; the dynamic revision module provides
correction Dui to furnace temperature set-point value of
each zone via rule inference. These rules are developed
by the on-line auto-learning module to simulate the
experienced human operators.
3.3.4. On-line auto learning module
After the operating condition is stable over an hour
and the billet end temperature meets with the rolling
technical requirement, the model starts the on-line auto
learning process.
*

thus, the set-point value of each zone is set as

uti d n en ti f n t2i ;

where ti is the instant when the billet locates at the end

of each zone.
Once the temperature preset-value at each zone is
calculated from the pyrology mechanism model, it will
be ne tuned using the information DTmi from the soft
measurement inference module to obtain the optimal
furnace temperature preset-value ui of each zone.
3.3.2. Soft measurement inference module
To maintain the billet heating quality, the billet
should be heated under a specied temperature prole at
each zone. Since the actual temperature of the billet at
the end of each zone cannot be measured directly, the
soft measurement inference will be used with the
working principle summarized briey as below:
Step 1The predictive model (5) calculates the billet
temperature Tmi and surface temperature Tsi at the end
of each zone.

1331

First, the average heavy oil consumption every hour

Coil is calculated and saved in the temporary rule base
based on the preset values of furnace temperature
setting T10 2T50 and the measured end surface
temperatures of the billet Tem :
At the end of each day, the better rule under a special
operation mode from the temporary rule base is
selected and saved into the auto learning rule base.

The rules include the optimal preset-value of furnace

temperature setting for minimum energy consumption
under the each operation mode, and the adjustment
rules of furnace temperature for dynamic revision.
3.3.5. Waiting rolling strategy module
The rolling line fault and regular maintenance of the
rolling machine will cause the process-halting phenomenon, which will affect the heating curves established
under the nominal condition. The waiting rolling
management is required to properly utilize the remaining heat during halting course for good heating
performance. For simplicity, the waiting rolling strategy
can set the furnace temperature in terms of the waiting
time. For example, a ramp function is used below for the
waiting rolling strategy:
*

when the waiting rolling starts, the furnace temperature decrease very quickly to the lowest value,

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1332
*

when the waiting rolling end, the furnace temperature

increase to the required set point value in a certain
slope.

10
8
6

The ramp function and the selected waiting rolling time

determine the lowest value of furnace temperature. The
slope of the ramp function is determined by the process
conditions, such as, biggest rising temperature gradient
that the billet stand, etc. The waiting rolling strategy can
resume the full productivity after the waiting rolling.

DTem (degree)

4
2
0
-2
-4
-6

4. Simulation and industrial experiments

-8
-10

The proposed optimal setting model of furnace

temperaturethe hybrid supervisory control system
has been tested in a walking beam reheat furnace in a
wire rod plant via both simulation and industrial
experiments. The simulation models are described in
Section 2.2 and implemented with Matlab language. The
input data of the model comes from the sampling data
of real plant and the simulation results can satisfy the
technical requirements. The steel grade in simulation
and industrial experiments is C40 : A proper operating
point of one operation mode for experiment is given in
Table 3. The common boundary conditions of the billet
are given in Table 4 for simulation, and Table 5 for the
real industrial experiment. First four variables in the
table Tin Bv are boundary conditionsdisturbances to
the process, and the last two variables are Te and
DTSC control requirements. The searching for proper
operating points will be nished once the two requirements are satised.
The simulation experiments in Fig. 5 show that the
billet end temperature Tem can be maintained within the
range 11207101C; while the industrial experiments in
Fig. 6 show that the end billet temperature Tem can be
maintained within the range 11207151C with (solid

10

20

30

40

50
Num

60

70

80

90

100

Fig. 5. Simulation performance of the optimal setting model.

line) or 11207301C without (dashed line) the optimal

setting model. Fig. 7 shows the optimal furnace temperature curve and the billet temperature curves for the
end target temperature as 11201C. The curves from
top to down are the temperature distribution of the
furnace, the billet surface temperature, the billet
average temperature, the billet center temperature
and the billet end sectional temperature difference,
respectively.
In order to demonstrate success of the optimal setting
model, the steel type is changed at 48 min from type 1 to
type 2 as shown in Table 1 in the industrial experiment.
The temperature response of high heat zone, middle
soak zone and low heat zone are shown from top to
down respectively in Fig. 8. It is obvious that the
optimal setting model can provide the updated optimal
furnace temperature set-point values in 2 min and a
good control performance is achieved. The time
response of the billet nal surface-temperature, the
billet nal average-temperature and the billet nal

Table 3
An operating point of one operation mode
Item

Tin0 (1C)

Steel type (mm)

Steel grade

v (m/min)

Te0 (1C)

T10 (1C)

T20 (1C)

T30 (1C)

T40 (1C)

T50 1C

Value

20

115  115  1250

C40

0.52

1120

1128

1135

1132

1150

820

Table 4
Common boundary conditions in simulation
Item

Tin (1C)

Steel type (mm)

Steel grade

v (m/min)

Te (1C)

DTSC (1C)

Value scope

20

115  115  1250

C40

0.6B0.7

1120710

2.5

Table 5
Common boundary conditions in real experiment
Item

Tin (1C)

Steel type (mm)

Steel grade

v (m/min)

Te (1C)

DTSC (1C)

Value scope

20

115  115  1250

C40

0.5B0.7

1120715

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W. Wang et al. / Control Engineering Practice 11 (2003) 13251334
30

1200
1150
temperature (degree)

20

10
DTem (degree)

1333

-10

1100
1050
1000
950
900

-20

-30

850
800
0

10

15

20
Num

25

30

35

40

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

time (sec)

Fig. 6. Industrial experimental performance with (solid) or without

(dashed) the optimal setting model.

Fig. 8. The furnace temperature curves of each zone.

1125

1200

1124.5

temperature (degree)

temperature (degree)

1000

800

600

1124
1123.5
1123
1122.5
1122

400

1121.5
200

1121
0

10
15
furnace length(m)

20

25

Fig. 7. The optimal furnace temperature curve and the billet

temperature curves versus furnace length.

1000

2000

3000
time (sec)

4000

5000

6000

Fig. 9. The billet end temperature curves.

5. Industrial application
5.1. Application background

center-temperature are shown from top to down

respectively in Fig. 9. The optimal setting model of
furnace temperature can keep the billet nal temperatures and the sectional temperature difference within a
very small variation range. Both simulation and
industrial experiments conrm the viability and effectiveness of the optimal setting model for furnace
temperature.
Though both on-line auto learning module and
waiting rolling strategy are implemented in the
experiment, still they are not simulated and even do
not appear in the above experiment due to simplicity.
First, we only consider the normal operating condition;
therefore the waiting rolling strategy required for the
abnormal condition is not needed. Second, the experiment duration is only for 40 billets, which is too short to
see the effect of on-line auto learning module.

The AutoMax DCS from Rockwell Company is

applied for the lower level control of the rolling line
and the walking beam reheat furnace. AutoMax is a
multifunctional industrial control system widely used in
the drive system control. The hardware of the higher-level
control computer uses the industrial control computer
IPC586, and the control task is completed with the
Borland C++ language. The control system diagram of
the walking-beam reheat furnace is shown as Fig. 10.
5.2. Application effects
The optimal setting model of furnace temperature has
been used in the control system for the walking beam
reheat furnace. The application results show that the
optimal setting model proposed in this paper can reduce
the energy consumption and decrease the oxidation

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W. Wang et al. / Control Engineering Practice 11 (2003) 13251334

1334

Combustion control system of the reheat furnace

Measurement
instrument

actuator

temperature

Billet
Specialty,

valve position

pressure
flow

rolling-line
information

AUTOMAX control system

Furnace temperature, oil flow,
wind flow control

Management computer for

the rolling-line

Product rate,
The time
inside
furnace of
the billets

The furnace temperature of each zone,

The final surface temperature of billet

Optimal setting model computer

IPC industrial
computer

Operator
station

Optimum rising
temperature curve

Heat state model

Furnace pressure, wind pressure,

oil temperature, steam pressure
oil pressure, hot wind discharge
control

The furnace temperature set

point value of each zone

Set-point value
calculation

Monitoring and collection

Walking period

Temperature set
point value of
billets in the
end of zone
Temperature of
billets in the
end of zone
Decreasing
temperature
curve

Abnormal strategy

Moving parameter
Stop or wait
rolling time

Machine drive control

AUTOMATE computer

Monitoring menu

Abnormal
operating condition

Process control level

Supervisory control level

Fig. 10. The control system diagram of the reheat furnace.

sheet-iron loss, on both the normal operating condition

and the abnormal operating condition. After applying
the optimal setting model of furnace temperature, the
energy consumption of the plant reduces 8% and the
oxidation sheet-iron loss decrease 0.2% than before,
which generates a good economic benet to the plant.
6. Conclusions
By integrating expert knowledge and pyrology mechanism properly, the optimal setting model can be
developed for the furnace temperature. The completed
supervisory control system is running for the walking
beam reheat furnace in a wire rod plant in China. The
key features of the proposed system include:
*

The proposed model can nd the proper operating

point of each operation mode faster and automatically update the set-point value of the optimal
furnace temperature at each zone under the varying
boundary condition.
Both simulation and the real industrial application
demonstrate the viability and effectiveness of the
suggested model, and conrm the economic benet to
the plant.

Acknowledgements
We appreciate greatly for very useful comments
from anonymous referees and editors. The work was
supported in part by the National distinguished Youth

Foundation of NNSF of China (69825106) and a grant

from RGC of Hong Kong (CityU 1054/00E).

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