Hybrid Intelligent Control Based on Condition Identification for Combustion Process in Heating Furnace of Compact Strip Production

The heating furnace is a sizeable energy-consuming device in iron and steel industry. In compact strip production (CSP), the size of the heating furnace is large and the working conditions are complicated. Furthermore, the large fluctuation of furnace temperature leads to large loss of billet combustion and energy consumption. This paper deals with the design of hybrid intelligent control based on condition identification for the combustion process of the CSP heating furnace. By analyzing the process of the heating furnace and existing problems, the structure of a hybrid intelligent control system is proposed, and the working conditions are divided into two categories: stable and fluctuating. A fuzzy controller is designed to improve the control accuracy of furnace temperature under the stable working condition, and an expert controller is used to adjust the temperature rapidly under the fluctuating working condition. Besides, calorific value compensation is introduced to reduce the influence of calorific value of gas fluctuation on temperature. After verifying the effectiveness, the proposed method has been used in a steel plant and achieved a good control result. The intelligent control system improves the control precision of the furnace temperature and reduces energy consumption compared with the traditional control system.