Artificial Neural Network Model for Temperature Prediction and Regulation during Molten Steel Transportation Process

Abstract

With the continuous optimization of the steel production process and the increasing emergence of smelting methods, it has become difficult to monitor and control the production process using the traditional steel management model. The regulation of steel smelting processes by means of machine learning has become a hot research topic in recent years. In this study, through the data mining and correlation analysis of the main equipment and processes involved in steel transfer, a network algorithm was optimized to solve the problems of standard back propagation (BP) networks, and a steel temperature forecasting model based on improved back propagation (BP) neural networks was established for basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steelmaking, ladle furnace (LF) refining, and Ruhrstahl–Heraeus (RH) refining. The main factors influencing steel temperature were selected through theoretical analysis and heat balance principles; the production data were analyzed; and the neural network was trained and tested using large amounts of field data to predict the end-point steel temperature of basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steelmaking, ladle furnace (LF) refining, and Ruhrstahl–Heraeus (RH) refining. The prediction model was applied to predict the degree of influence of different operating parameters on steel temperature. A comparison of the prediction results with the production data shows that the prediction system has good prediction accuracy, with a hit rate of over 90% for steel temperature deviations within 20 °C. Compared with the traditional steel temperature management model, the prediction system in this paper has higher management efficiency and a faster response time and is more practical and generalizable in the thermal management of steel.