ADAPTATION FOR TANDEM COLD MILL

MODELS

C. T. A. Pires ∗ H. C. Ferreira ∗∗ D. Uehara ∗∗

R. M. Sales ∗∗

∗
Companhia Siderúrgica Paulista (Cosipa),
Estrada de Piaçagüera, km. 6,
CEP 11573-900, Cubatão (SP), Brazil
∗∗
University of São Paulo, Department of
Telecommunication and Control Engineering,
Av. Prof. Luciano Gualberto, trv. 3, n. 158,
CEP 05508-900, São Paulo (SP), Brazil

Abstract: The ideal conditions for the operation of tandem cold mills are connected
to a set of references generated by models and used by dynamic regulators. Aiming
the optimization of the friction and yield stress coefficients an adaptation algorithm
is proposed in this paper. Experimental results obtained from an industrial cold
rolling mill are presented.Copyright ° c 2007 IFAC

Keywords: Process automation, Process models, Adaptation, Optimization,

Preset.

1. INTRODUCTION order to face this problem, different adaptation

Physical models for rolling mills have been in-
tensively developed in the last years, aiming the
increase of quality of steel strip and improvement
of productivity of rolling processes. Nevertheless,
these two characteristics, productivity and qua-
lity, are only achieved with models sufficiently
accurate. The availability of accurate models, as-
sociated to set-up optimization methods, aiming
quality and productivity, has already been explo-
red in the literature (Pires et al., 2006), (Wang
et al., 2000), (Sekiguchi et al., 1996), (Ozsoy et
al., 1992) and (Fiebig and Zander, 1982). On the
other hand, models will only be precise enough if
equated with rolling mill parameters representing
the present status of the rolling process. Among
these parameters, the friction µ and yield stress
k coefficients can not be measured with the ins-
trumentation available today and, yet worse, their
effect on the process are quite similar, making the
question of accuracy even more complex. In the
schemes have been proposed in the literature.
The importance of such adaptation was originally
pointed in (Bryant, 1973) and it has been object of
several recent works (Atack and Robinson, 1996),
(Randall et al., 1997), (Nishino et al., 2000) and
(Wang et al., 2005).
In the present work, an adaptation scheme is
proposed and applied to a four stand tandem cold
mill at Cosipa plant – Brazil. Such scheme is based
on the minimization of a cost function which takes
into consideration the contribution of the friction
coefficient and the yield stress coefficient.
For the minimization of the cost function, Nel-
der and Mead simplex algorithm (Nelder and
Mead, 1965) was employed. An objective function
is defined such that the main variable force is
taken into consideration. This process variable is
calculated by a cold rolling classical model (Ford
et al., 1951), (Ford and Ellis, 1952) and (Bland
and Ford, 1952).
 Table 1. Electrical and mechanical cha- which improves the set-up specification for
racteristics every new coil;
Annual production (ton) 1248000
• Level 1 (Process dynamic control): According
Maximum speed (m/min) 1080 to the reference signals from level 2 and
Work rolls diameter (mm) 490 to 575 measured process signals, suitable control
Back up rolls diameter (mm) 1270 to 1422 signals are generated in this level for the
Motors actuators. This level includes the dynamic
Stand 1 2 3 4
model and the mill master logic. In addition,
Power (kW) 2× 2× 2× 2×
1800 1800 1800 1482 it records the process variables necessary to
Speed (rpm) 433 to 433 to 433 to 200 to the adaptive functions of level 2;
1046 1046 1046 485 • Level 0 (Actuators and sensors): This level
Voltage (V) 900 900 900 700 includes sensors, motor drives and hydraulic
Material Carbon Steel
actuators for gap control.
Entry thickness (mm) 2.00 to 4.75
Exit thickness (mm) 0.38 to 3.00 The present paper refers to the adaptation proce-
Coil width (mm) 650 to 1575
dure of level 2. More specifically, the coefficients
Coil internal diameter (mm) 610
Coil external diameter (mm) 1930 µ and k are adapted in order to optimize the
predicted forces to be applied by the mill stands.
This paper is organized as follows: in section 2,
the mechanical and electrical characteristics of the
tandem cold mill are introduced and the automa- 3. THE ROLLING MODEL
tion and control system architecture is described;
in section 3, the mathematical model of the cold Bland and Ford cold mill model (Ford et al.,
rolling mill process is presented and some advan- 1951), (Ford and Ellis, 1952) and (Bland and Ford,
tages of its use are summarized; in section 4 details 1952) was chosen as the mathematical process
of the adaptation algorithm and the cost function model used in this paper to calculate the rolling
are presented; simulation and experimental results loads of the tandem cold mill. According to Bland
are explained in section 5; and finally, section 6 and Ford theory, the strip is subjected to three
presents the main conclusions. different zones in the arc of contact between
the strip and the work rolls. In the first zone,
located at the entry of this region, the strip
is elastically compressed until the yield stress
2. COSIPA FOUR STAND TANDEM COLD
condition is achieved. In the second zone, the strip
MILL
is plastically deformed until a minimum thickness
while in the third and last zone, it suffers elastic
Cosipa cold mill is a coil to coil four high, four recover. The mathematical development to find
stand mill, in which each stand is composed by 2 the final expressions of force, torque and deformed
backup rolls and 2 work rolls, the later coupled to roll radius can be followed in reference (Bland and
dc motors controlled by digital speed regulators, Ford, 1952). Hereafter, only the final expressions
totaling 16 MW of nominal power. Two hydraulics of these dimensions will be shown.
actuators, installed at the top of the stands,
complete the set of reduction of each stand. Table The rolling force by unit width P is a nonlinear
1 presents the main electrical and mechanical function of the entry thickness hin , the exit thick-
characteristics of the tandem cold mill. ness hout , the entry tension σin , the exit tension
σout , the entry yield stress kin , the exit yield stress
The whole rolling mill is commanded by a control kout , the coefficient of friction µ and the deformed
system, whose architecture is shown in Fig. 1. work roll radius R0 ,
The automation architecture of Cosipa four stand
tandem cold mill includes the following 4 levels, P = fP (hin , hout , σin , σout , kin , kout , µ, R0 ). (1)
as described in (Bolon, 1996).
• Level 3 (Production planning level): This The deformed roll radius is a function of the
level is responsible to decide which product elastic and plastic forces and can be calculated
will be produced and according to which in the following manner,
specification; · 2
¸
0 16P (1 − νR )
• Level 2 (Process optimization level): From R =R 1+ , (2)
πER (hin − hout )
entry and exit coil data specifications, this
level is responsible for finding the best mill
where νR and ER are the Poisson’s ratio and the
set-up in order to ensure high quality and
Young’s modulus for the work roll, respectively.
productivity. Based on static models this le-
vel includes a set-up optimization procedure Finally, the yield stress is expressed by the fol-
(Pires et al., 2006) and an adaptive loop lowing equation,
 LEVEL 3
Production
planing

LEVEL 2
Process
optimization Dec Alpha
Mill set-up model
Coil tracking
Reporters
Date logging

Short term AGC Master

adaptation LEVEL 1
Process dynamic
Model force
(k and m) control

LEVEL 0
Actuators and
Sensors

Fig. 1. Cosipa cold mill automation architecture

kin(out) = k · [A + B · εin(out) ] · to improve the predictions of force for the second

© ª
· 1 − C · exp[−Dεin(out) ] , (3)
µ ¶
h0
εin = ln ,
hin
µ ¶
h0
εout = ln , The proposed adaptation scheme consists of two
hout
where A, B, C and D are material dependent
constants and h0 is the strip thickness at entry of
the mill, assumed to be the thickness of annealed
strip. Both µ of Eq. (1) and k of Eq. (3) are
initialized and adjusted in the adaptation phase.
4. ADAPTATION PROCEDURE
This section is focused on the adaptation of the
friction coefficients µ and yield stress k parameter,
which are central for the Bland and Ford rolling
model. More specifically, before rolling the first
coil of a batch, estimates for these parameters are
adopted for the calculation of the reduction for
each stand. This calculation is performed through
an optimization procedure, which is described in
detail in (Pires et al., 2006). Besides the reduc-
tion for the stands, the optimization procedure
generates predicted values for the rolling forces.
After the rolling of the first coil, these predicted
values are compared to the measured values and
the parameters µ and k are then adapted, aiming
coil. This section presents the proposed adapta-
tion scheme, which is the main contribution of this
paper. In section 5 some experimental results are
also presented.
main phases as shown in Fig. 2: in the first phase,
using Bland and Ford model and an initial guess
for µ and k, predicted values of forces and their
corresponding reduction for each stand are calcu-
lated. These calculated forces are compared to the
measured forces and, in the second phase, through
an optimization algorithm, the parameters µ and
k are adjusted in order to minimize an objective
function. The simplex nonlinear method, initially
proposed in (Nelder and Mead, 1965) is used in
the optimization phase.
Some comments on the Bland and Ford model
have already been presented in section 3. In what
follows, a brief description of the Nelder and Mead
simplex algorithm is presented.
Among the various existing optimization methods,
some recent applications related to cold mill set-
up optimization include nonlinear programming
(Ozsoy et al., 1992), genetic algorithms (Wang et
al., 2000), and more specifically the Nelder and
Mead simplex method (Nelder and Mead, 1965),
which was employed in (Fiebig and Zander, 1982)
and also by Cosipa cold mill automation system
(Pires et al., 2006). A detailed description of
 xE
h m k

Bland and
Ford model
xB xR
m k

Nelder and Mead xU

simplex Fcalc
optimization
xC
No Fmeas
Fcalc : Fmeas
xT

Yes

xW xN
New Fcalc

Fig. 3. Simplex algorithm steps

Fig. 2. Adaptation scheme 2. Reflection: The average point or centroid xC
the simplex method can be found in (Walters et is determined finding the average of all points
al., 1991). xi , except xW (see Fig. 3). From equation:
Like for every optimization algorithm, the defini- x = xC + b · (xC − xW ) , (5)
tion of the objective function plays a central role
for the Nelder and Mead algorithm. In the present and assuming the minimization step b = 1, it
case, the adopted objective function is given by results x = xR , known as reflection of xW with
" Ã (i) !#Nf(i) respect to xC . If JB < JR < JN , then xW is
X4 (i) replaced by xR and the process is restarted from
(i) F calc − Fmeas
J= kf · (i)
(4) step 5;
i=1 F meas
3. Expansion: If JR < JB < JN , then set b = 2
and get x = xE , known as expansion of xR with
where the index i = 1, 2, 3, 4 refers to each stand
(i) (i) respect to xC . If JE < JB , xW is replaced by
of the mill; Fcalc and Fmeas are the calculated xE and a new process is restarted from step 5;
and measured forces, respectively and kf e Nf 4. Contraction: If JN < JR < JW , a contrac-
are constants adjusted according to the values of tion is made, generating a vertex x = xU for
Table 2. which b = 1/2. If JB < JU < JN , xW is
Table 2. Parameters of the adaptation replaced by xU and a new process is restarted
cost function from step 5; If JW < JR , a contraction with
Stand 1 2 3 4 change in direction must be done, generating a
Kf 1 1 1 1 vertex x = xT for which b = −1/2. If JT < JW ,
Nf 2 2 2 2 xW is replaced by xT and a new process is
restarted from step 5.
The search for the parameters µ and k that 5. Stop condition: Sort the points of the new
minimize the objective function is implemented simplex as xW , xN and xB for which the func-
in the Nelder and Mead algorithm through the tion has its maximum value JW , the second
following steps: maximum value JN , and the minimum value
(i) Set initial values for µ and k; JB , respectively. If J (xW ) − J (xB ) < ε, then
(ii) Introduce disturbances in µ and k and, for stop; otherwise, go to step 2. The value of the
each new point, calculate the corresponding first stop criterion ε was selected as 0.001 and
objective function value. proved sufficient to get accurate results with a
not too big number of iterations. As a second
Three main operations may be accomplished from stop criterion, the maximum number of itera-
step (ii): reflection, contraction and expansion, as tions was adjusted to 200. Finally, as a last
illustrated in Fig. 3, for an example of two optimi- guarantee of halting the whole iteration process,
zation variables. Yet for the two dimensions case, a maximum computation time may be chosen.
the algorithm proceeds in the following steps:
1. Sorting: The iterative process is initiated sor-
ting the points xW , xN and xB for which the 5. MAIN RESULTS
function has its maximum value JW , the second
maximum value JN , and the minimum value Set-up accuracy of the actual rolling mill model,
JB , respectively. working with the original adaptation technic are
 Accuracy of the present rolling load set-up model - Stand 1 Convergence of the adaptation cost function

80 1.4
0.72
10

Measured/Preseted Force (%)

70 1.3
0.70
10
Total reduction (%)

60 1.2

Cost Function
0.68
10
50 1.1

0.66
40 1.0 10

0.64
30 0.9 10

Total reduction
20 Measured/Preseted Force 0.8 0.62
10

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Coils Number of iterations

Fig. 4. Results of the present rolling mill model Fig. 5. Convergence of the adaptation cost func-
tion
Table 3. Force error for the actual and
proposed adaptation
Stand # 1 2 3 4
µ 0.0283 0.0288 0.0241 0.0965
k 1.34 1.34 1.34 1.34
Fcalc 1100 972 841 953
Fmeas 1113 977 832 982
Error % -1.15 -0.58 1.01 -3.01
µ0 0.0352 0.0275 0.0173 0.1006
k0 1.30 1.30 1.30 1.30
0
Fcalc 1110 972 842 990
Error % -0.27 -0.51 1.20 0.79

shown in Fig. 4 for 300 coils processed in se-

quence. Aiming to evaluate these results, simu-
lations using the proposed adaptation procedure
were performed and compared to the currently
operating method for a batch of coils.
The upper part of the Table 3 shows the accuracy Fig. 6. Comparison of force error
of the predicted rolling load for the adaptation
scheme currently in use in the tandem cold mill,
while the lower part presents the same characte- simulated method. It can be noted a significant
ristic for the proposed adaptation procedure. For improvement in the model accuracy when using
comparison purpose, it was considered a batch of the proposed method.
10 dimensionally similar coils, not considering the
first coil. It can be noted a slight improvement in
the mean force error when the friction and yield
stress coefficients, for the next coil, are calculated
using the proposed adaptation technic.
6. CONCLUSIONS
The adopted strategy was to adjust the step of
the yield stress coefficient greater than that of the
This work presents an adaptation procedure for
friction coefficients, taking into consideration that
the set-up generation of a four stand tandem
most part of the force error is certainly due to the
cold rolling mill, located at Cosipa plant, Brazil.
steel strip hardness changes. To evaluate the con-
The proposed algorithm consists of an objective
vergence capacity of the method, the number of
function, which takes into consideration friction
steps of one of those adaptation set-up simulation
and yield stress coefficients and is minimized using
is shown in Fig. 5.
Nelder and Mead simplex method (Nelder and
Considering the two methods, a comparison of the Mead, 1965). Simulation results show that the
mean error and error distribution, for each one of methods adopted is robust, very fast and can be
the mill stands, can be shown in Fig. 6. In this tuned very easily leading to results according to
figure, the first four distributions correspond to the expected for the industrial tandem cold mill
the present adaptation while the next four to the into consideration.
 REFERENCES tandem cold rolling mills. Engineering Appli-
cations of Artificial Intelligence 13, 397–406.
Atack, P. A. and I. S. Robinson (1996). Adap-
Wang, J. S., Z. Y. Jiang, A. K. Tieu, X. H. Liu
tation of hot mill process models. Journal of
and G. D. Wang (2005). Adaptive calcula-
Materials Processing Technology 60, 535–542.
Bland, D. R. and H. Ford (1952). Cold rolling tion of deformation resistance model of on-
with strip tension, part iii: An approximate line process control in tandem cold mill. Jour-
treatment of the elastic compression of the nal of Materials Processing Technology 162-
strip in rolling mills. Journal of The Iron and 163, 585–590.
Steel Institute 172, 245–249.
Bolon, P. L. (1996). Corum tandem cold mill setup
model: Cosipa implementation. Davy-Clecim.
Cergy Le-Haut.
Bryant, G. F. (1973). Automation of tandem mills.
The Iron and Steel Institute. London.
Fiebig, E. and H. Zander (1982). Automation of
tandem cold rolling mills. Metallurgical Plant
and Technology 3, 88–97.
Ford, H. and F. Ellis (1952). Cold rolling with
strip tension, part ii: Comparison of calcula-
ted and experimental results. Journal of The
Iron and Steel Institute 171, 239–245.
Ford, H., F. Ellis and D. R. Bland (1951). Cold
rolling with strip tension, part i: A new ap-
proximate method of calculation and a com-
parison with other methods. Journal of The
Iron and Steel Institute 168, 57–72.
Nelder, J. A. and R. Mead (1965). A simplex
method for function minimization. Computer
Journal 7, 308–313.
Nishino, S., H. Narazaki, A. Kitamura, Y. Mori-
moto and K. Ohe (2000). An adaptive appro-
ach to improve the accuracy of a rolling load
prediction model for a plate rolling process.
ISIJ International 40, 1216–1222.
Ozsoy, I. C., G. E. Ruddle and A. F. Crawley
(1992). Optimum scheduling of a hot rolling
process by nonlinear programming. Canadian
Metallurgical Quartely 31, 217–224.
Pires, C. T. A., H. C. Ferreira, R. M. Sales and
M. A. Silva (2006). Set-up optimization for
tandem cold mills: A case study. Journal of
Materials Processing Technology 173, 368–
375.
Randall, A., J. F. Kaplan, J. S. Mislay and G. J.
Oprisu (1997). Adaptive finishing mill setup
model and gage control upgrade for ltv steel
cleveland works’ 80-in. hot strip mill. Iron
and Steel Engineer pp. 31–40.
Sekiguchi, K., Y. Seki, N. Okitani, M. Fukuda,
S. Critchley, W. G. Habib, D. Hartman and
K. Shaw (1996). The advanced set-up and
control system for dofasco’s tandem cold mill.
IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications
32(3), 608–616.
Walters, F. H., L. R. Parker and S. L. Morgan
(1991). Sequential simplex optimization. CRC
Press. Boca Raton.
Wang, D. D., A. K. Tieu, F. G. de Boer, B. Ma
and W. Y. D. Yuen (2000). Toward a heu-
ristic optimum design of rolling schedules for