Ant Colony Optimization Based Heat Transfer Coefficient Identification for Secondary Cooling Zone of Continuous Caster

A two-dimensional heat transfer model for simulation and control of a continuous steel billet caster is presented. The convection heat transfer coefficient for each segment of secondary cooling zone is determined, which is the boundary conditions of heat transfer model. An improved ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm to identify the calibration constants of convection heat transfer coefficient is also presented. The ACO algorithm is a novel heuristic bionic algorithm, which is based on the behavior of real ants in nature searching for food. In order to identify these calibration constants using ACO algorithm, an objective function was constructed based on shell thickness, and elitist strategy was adopted in the improved ACO algorithm. Test results show that the methodology is effective for real application.