Advanced Process Control

1
ADVANCED PROCESS CONTROL:

A MULTISCALE APPROACH

Yudi Samyudia
School of Engineering and Science
Curtin University of Technology, Sarawak Campus
CDT 250, 98009 Miri Sarawak MALAYSIA
Email: yudi.samyudia@curtin.edu.my

Abstract

The advances in physical, chemical and
biological sciences and the development of
new measurement and characterization tools
have made it possible for us to understand
spatial and temporal phenomena on the
atomic, molecular, microscopic, and
macroscopic scales. All these have created
more opportunities to integrate such
phenomena at molecular level into the optimal
operation of unit operation (i.e. reheating
furnace, bioreactor). In this paper, we
highlight a multi-scale approach to tackle a
different scale nature of the modern process
control problems. The new challenges and
directions of the multi scale approach will
be discussed with industrial case studies.

Introduction

Fundamental advances in physical,
chemical and biological sciences and the
development of new measurement and
characterization tools have made it
possible to understand spatial and temporal
phenomena on the atomic, molecular,
microscopic, and macroscopic scales
[2-4;8-
9;14-15]
. Studies on continuum and
molecular phenomena of the processes and
how these are related to the material and
energy flows in the large-scale equipment
and plants commonly found in industry for
producing energy, products and materials
are of paramount importance. We face
enormous challenges when we analyse
industrial processes, and describe them in
terms of the underlying continuum and
molecular events. The great potential of a
wide variety of computer simulations (e.g.
Computational Fluid Dynamics, Lattice-
Boltzmann simulations, Monte-Carlo
techniques) makes it possible to simulate
all aspects of industrial processes in great
detail and pretty truthfully. Furthermore,
advanced measuring techniques allow us
to penetrate deeply into the details of flow
and transport phenomena as occurring in
process equipment, and to analyse their
mutual relations and their impact on
physical and chemical processes. Such a
better understanding should lead to a better
control of various processes producing
better products in a cleaner and more
efficient way
[6-7]
. In this way, advanced
process control would therefore contribute
to more sustainable industrial processes
and a better world.
The ability to translate these
advances into the engineering of new
products and industries will require a
systematic transformation in the
methodologies of engineering modelling,
simulation, and control design.
Interactions at all scales affect the ultimate
behaviour of the complete system, and
engineers must learn how to model and
design across this range of scales. While
many physical, chemical and biological
principles are specific to their domains, the
challenge of representation across scales,
International Conference on Instrumentation, Control & Automation
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2009 ICA, ISBN 978-979-8861-05-5 27
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automatic synthesis of reliable simulations,
optimisation of design decisions,
propagation of uncertainty across scales,
and validation of multi-scale methods are
core issues that map across applications,
and can best be addressed by a systems
approach to the engineering design and
control.
Multi-scale systems engineering
research is concerned with the new
technologies and design paradigms
required to optimally account for multi-
scale interactions in materials, devices, and
systems (see Figure 1). The application of
multi-scale systems engineering will lead
to the development of optimised products
and processes. Engineers using these tools
will be supported by (i) a hierarchy of
models that provide a consistent
description of multi-scale phenomena, (ii)
adaptive simulation methods that account
for scale interactions, (iii) efficient
computational analysis, optimisation and
control methods, and (iv) the
representation of uncertainty and its
propagation.

Figure 1: Multi-scale nature of process systems (Grossman and Westerberg, 2000)

While systems engineering, i.e. control,
modelling and design has been
approaching the maturity in its technology,
more challenges are still emerging, where
creative solutions and tools are needed to
enhance the current technology as well as
to extend the technology for new
application areas such as large-scale
process, systems biology and material
processing. This paper is aimed at
addressing new challenges on the creation
of powerful multi-scale systems
engineering technologies as the new
generation of advanced process control. A
number of illustrative industrial case
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studies will be presented for the proposed
design framework and challenges.

Multi-scale System Design

As we look forward to the creation of
powerful multi-scale systems engineering
technologies, it is easy to envision the
pervasive influence they will have on
product and process development. For
example, let us consider the development
process for steel strip products (Figure 2).
The designer's goal is to provide a product
that meets the thermo-mechanical
properties (e.g. harden-ability) through
reheating process of steel block up to the
re-crystallization temperature and followed
by rolling mills and cooling processes
while minimizing the energy use. There
currently are no effective modelling and
simulation tools to support the optimum
reheating process by simultaneously
considering the grain-size growth,
oxidation and ion exchange, combustion
and hot-gas flow dynamics, and reheat
temperature profiles. Today's tools do not
allow the designer to model the
interactions that link across multi-scales:
between the furnace temperature, hot gas
flow, and austenite grain size on system,
meso- and micro-levels. Furthermore,
there are no methods to determine how the
oxidation taking place during the reheating
might reduce the effectiveness of heat
transfer process.

Figure 2: A manufacturing plant of hot steel strip products.

The challenge of multi-scale systems lies
in the development of modelling, control
and optimisation tools that fully span
the spectrum of scales. This paradigm
will carry physical principles across many
scales and propagate functional
characteristics to adjust parameters of the
system. The optimal selection of such
variables is critical to effective design and
will be integral to system and product
development approaches as illustrated in
Figure 3. This integration of modelling and
simulation methods with design
optimisation across multiple scales is
fundamental to the challenge and promise
of multi-scale systems engineering.
Reheating
Furnace
Rolling/
finishing
stands
Cooling
zones
Coil
Match and Preheat Zones
Intermediate
Zone
Soaking
Zone
Rolling Mill
Charge
Zone
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FUTURE
PRODUCTS &
PROCESS
MULTISCALE
SYSTEMS DESIGN
OPTIMIZATION
MODELING &
SIMULATION
CONTROL DESIGN

Figure 3: Multi-scale design of complex engineering systems

Multi-scale Control Design:
Framework and Challenges

Figure 4 illustrates a typical design
framework for multi-scale systems. This
framework can be implemented effectively
if the following four technological thrusts
are well developed. They are: (1) Adaptive
modelling and validation methods; (2)
Scale linking and simulation methods; (3)
Robust constrained control and
optimization; and (4) Multi-scale systems
test-bed. Figure 5 shows such challenges
with the case study of reheating furnace.

Figure 4: Multi-scale control design framework
Measured
Variables
Product
Performance
Manipulated
Variables
PROCESS
(Multi-scale)
Design Models
ROBUST DYNAMIC
CONSTRAINED OPTIMIZATION
Disturbance/Uncertainty

Statistical
Analysis
Design
Experiment
Plant/
Experiment
Data
Model
Simulation
Model
Update
MULTI-SCALE MODEL
DEVELOPMENT
Process
Mechanisms
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Adaptive Modelling and Validation
Methods address the modelling methods
and aspects of the uncertainty and
interfacing to experiments barriers.

Approach: Start with a simpler model,
based on a single scale and uncoupled
physical processes, and then adaptively
introduce additional scales to permit
coupled multi-scale, multi physics
considerations until whenever and
wherever these are needed, until the
simplest possible model is obtained.
a. What are the model building blocks
to accommodate spatial and time
scales?
b. When is additional scale
necessary?
c. How do we introduce additional
scales (discrete and/or continuum)?
d. Do we need a stochastic
modelling?
e. How do we deal with uncertainty
(physical, statistical and/or model)?

Scale Linking and Simulation Methods
address the adaptive multi-scale simulation
barriers.

Requirements: The efficient
computational and simulation tools should
meet the following requirements:
a. Integrate multiple analysis,
optimisation and control methods
b. Be easily extended to address new
models
c. Operate effectively on cost
effective computer
d. Support designs engineers
e. Integrate into companies
design/manufacturing processes
and environments

Figure 5 Challenges in Multi-scale Systems Engineering

Robust
Constrained
Control &
Optimization
Scale
Linking &
Simulation
Methods
Uncertainty
Propagation In
Multi-scale
Models
Adaptive
Modelling &
Validation
Methods
Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3 Zone 4
: thermocouple
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Robust Constrained Control and
Optimisation addresses the system
optimisation and control for multi-scale
systems and their design barriers.

Challenges: Optimisation and control of
multi-scale systems exhibit the following
challenges:
a. Complex dynamics (large number
of degree of freedoms; nonlinear)
b. Intensive computation requirement
for high fidelity simulation
c. Identification requirement for
model parameters
d. Multiple design objective and
constraints
e. Static and dynamically adjustable
parameters

Approach: Integration of modelling,
identification, optimisation and control
tools, and tailor them to specific
applications. New methods are necessary
for multi-scale systems in:
a. Developing on-demand model
generation based on physical data,
analytical model with tuneable
parameterisation, error metric,
error bound and active probing to
reduce model uncertainty
b. Establishing integrated design
methodology based on simulation
driven multidisciplinary
optimisation using gradient and
evolutionary methods by taking
into account uncertainty
c. Identifying fundamental limits on
performance and robustness of
multi-scale systems based on static
and dynamic optimisation

Multi-scale Systems Test-beds address the
multi-scale system validation and aspects
of the model uncertainty and interface to
experiments barriers.

Case Study Reheat Furnace
Control

With the case study of reheat furnace
system, we illustrate the new approach of
multi-scale system design to improve the
operation of the furnace in meeting the
product specification demands and
uncertainty in raw materials.

Problem Formulation & Challenges
Reheat furnaces represent a major cost and
critical unit process in the hot rolled strip
mills. Minimizing energy consumption
together with the reduction of oxidation
and scale formation during the reheating
process are the main concerns in the
operation of a reheat furnace. The control
of reheat furnaces are therefore aimed at
the following objectives
[11, 13]
:
Provide properly heated slabs
at the discharge end of the
furnace to meet the mills
demands, e.g. small variability
in the slab extract temperature
while satisfying the minimum
temperature requirement for
the re-crystallization process to
occur in the rolling section, and
avoiding too large grain size
and excessive scale formation
during the reheating process
Minimize the fuel consumption
while optimizing the
production rate and quality
Deal with uncertainty in
production line (e.g. steel
grades, delays in the mill
section)

The first objective is usually translated into
a number of control sub-objectives such as
finite temperature tracking problem, which
is off-line formulated to achieve the
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second and third objectives. Also,
additional constraints in heating rate at
different heating zones are introduced to
avoid the excessive dissolution of alloyed
elements (or large grain size). This
traditional approach of control design
formulations has been applied to translate
the microstructure objectives/constraints
into macro level control.

Control Strategies

Given such translation process of
microstructure objectives to macro control
problems, different control strategies can
be applied for the reheating furnace.
comparison studies, we applied
control strategies as follows:

A mid-course correction
control (e.g. ITAM,
typical industrial approach
Set a target temperature for
the end of each heating
zone
For each slab, apply a
predictor-corrector

Figure 6: Finite time trajectory control of a reheat furnace
7
second and third objectives. Also,
additional constraints in heating rate at
different heating zones are introduced to
solution of alloyed
elements (or large grain size). This
traditional approach of control design
formulations has been applied to translate
the microstructure objectives/constraints
Given such translation process of
microstructure objectives to macro control
problems, different control strategies can
be applied for the reheating furnace. For
applied two
course correction batch
, which is a
approach)
Set a target temperature for
the end of each heating
For each slab, apply a
corrector method
that minimizes the
difference between the
target end
predicted slab temperat
at the end zone by adjusting
the set point of furnace
zone temperature
Repeat the procedure for
other slabs and heating
zones

A finite time trajectory
NSTC, which uses nonlinear
control algorithm
Set an optimal temperature
trajectory
charge-in to the furnace exit
For multiple slabs in the
furnace, adjust the set
points of furnace zone
temperatures by minimizing
the temperature trajectory
errors

For the finite time trajectory control
problem, the implemented control
is shown in Figure 6.
that minimizes the
difference between the
target end-zone and
predicted slab temperature
at the end zone by adjusting
the set point of furnace
zone temperature
Repeat the procedure for
other slabs and heating
finite time trajectory control (e.g.
, which uses nonlinear
control algorithm)
Set an optimal temperature
trajectory from the furnace
in to the furnace exit
For multiple slabs in the
furnace, adjust the set
points of furnace zone
temperatures by minimizing
the temperature trajectory
For the finite time trajectory control
, the implemented control strategy

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In this approach, the role of look up
table is to accommodate the uncertainty
in raw materials so that the table provides
different trajectory profile to be followed
by the temperature control systems. The
data supplied by the look up table is the
results of off-line optimization that
involves more detailed models at
microstructure level as well as the
information from downstream processing,
i.e. rolling mills, cooling, etc.

Closed-loop Performance

With careful design of the proposed
control strategies, the operational
objectives can be achieved by using NSTC
(see Figure 7). This performance was
tested for one day operation involving 300
slabs.

Figure 7: Performance of two control strategies

Table 1: Potential energy saving in each zone and energy consumption from each zone

preheat charge intermediate soaking
-8
-6
-4
-2
0
2
4
-7.87%
-6.10%
-3.21%
2.99%
Preheat Charge Intermediate Soaking
Number 16 24 14 56
BTU/zone
(mm-BTU)
242 274 138 112
Orientation side side longitudinal Roof
longitudinal
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From Table 1, it is clear that the NSTC has
achieved the minimum energy
consumption while achieving a better
variability of the exit temperature than the
ITAM. Energy savings are mainly
obtained from the first three heating zones
while more heating is required at the
soaking zone.

Figure 8: NSTC with optimizing pace rate control

Figure 9: (left) without pace rate control; (right) with pace rate control

0 10 20 30
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
location
t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

-

K
ref. traj
MBC
Cycle
9
From Table 1, it is clear that the NSTC has
achieved the minimum energy
consumption while achieving a better
exit temperature than the
ITAM. Energy savings are mainly
obtained from the first three heating zones
while more heating is required at the
Optimizing Pace-rate Control

Further improvement to the NSTC design
is through the use of optimizing
control as depicted in Figure 8. This is a
feed-forward strategy to anticipate the
disturbance of different pace rates. Figure
9 shows the improved performance of the
reheat furnace control.
Figure 8: NSTC with optimizing pace rate control
30 40
0 5 10 15 20 25
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
location - meter
t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

-

K
ref. traj.
MBC
Cycle (k-1)
Cycle (k)
rate Control
Further improvement to the NSTC design
is through the use of optimizing pace rate
control as depicted in Figure 8. This is a
forward strategy to anticipate the
disturbance of different pace rates. Figure
9 shows the improved performance of the

30 35 40 45
location - meter
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Multi-scale Control of Reheat Furnace

Further improvement can be achieved by
implementing the control strategy in
Figure 10, where we include the scale
formation control system. Also, dynamic
optimization strategy can be included to
generate on-line the heating profile

Figure 10: Multi

Conclusions

In this paper, we have presented a new
approach to advanced process control that
considered the multi-scale nature of the
process systems. By doing so, we have a
better formulation of control problems
which in turn would have a significant
impact of using advanced control
algorithms. An industrial case stu
reheat furnace control has been used as an
illustrative example of the new approach.

10
scale Control of Reheat Furnace
Further improvement can be achieved by
implementing the control strategy in
Figure 10, where we include the scale
Also, dynamic
optimization strategy can be included to
line the heating profile
across the furnace. This on
optimization requires a comprehensive
micro level model that describes the
dissolution of micro alloy elements.
Clearly, the proposed multi
combines different scales of models, and is
implemented in a distributed and cascade
control structure.
Figure 10: Multi-scale control of reheating furnace
In this paper, we have presented a new
advanced process control that
scale nature of the
process systems. By doing so, we have a
better formulation of control problems
which in turn would have a significant
impact of using advanced control
algorithms. An industrial case study of
reheat furnace control has been used as an
illustrative example of the new approach.
Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank many
parties that support the research, namely
DOFASCO Inc., Natural Science and
Engineering Research of Canada,
McMaster Advanced Control Consortium,
Curtin Sarawak Research Funds, Ministry
of Science, Technology and
Malaysia and our graduate students, in
particular Hatopan Sibarani.

across the furnace. This on-line
optimization requires a comprehensive
micro level model that describes the
dissolution of micro alloy elements.
oposed multi-scale control
combines different scales of models, and is
distributed and cascaded

The author would like to thank many
parties that support the research, namely
DOFASCO Inc., Natural Science and
Engineering Research of Canada,
aster Advanced Control Consortium,
Curtin Sarawak Research Funds, Ministry
of Science, Technology and Innovation,
our graduate students, in
particular Hatopan Sibarani.
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