A comparative study of coolant flow optimization on a steel casting machine

In continuous casting of steel a number of parameters have to be set, such as the casting temperature, casting speed and coolant flows that critically affect the safety, quality and productivity of steel production. We have implemented an optimization tool consisting in an optimization algorithm and casting process simulator. The paper describes the process, the optimization task, and the proposed optimization approach, and shows illustrative results of its application on an industrial casting machine where spray coolant flows were optimized. In the comparative study, two variants of an evolutionary algorithm and the downhill simplex method were used, and they were all able to significantly improve the manual setting of coolant flows.