Electric Arc Furnace Electrode Movement Control System Based on a Fuzzy Arc Length Identifier

From the point of view of the synthesis of control influences, arc steelmaking furnaces are complex nonlinear objects with strongly expressed mutual influences. It has been demonstrated that at a given supply voltage, the distribution of the current values of the phase currents in the quasi-steady-state mode makes it possible to estimate the situation in the arc space of an arc steelmaking furnace and identify the value of arc lengths. This dependence is preserved in transient modes. In order to identify arc lengths from the phase currents, it is proposed to use an approach based on the theory of fuzzy sets. The construction of the fuzzy arc length identifier rule base was carried out in two stages: the first stage used data from quasi-steady-state modes and the Wang–Mendel algorithm; the second stage involved adding a new rule to the database if the activity level of the formed rules was lower than the established level α for the data obtained in the dynamic mode. Further optimization of the parameters of the fuzzy identifier for operation in dynamic modes was carried out using the “back-propagation” algorithm. Based on the identified values of arc lengths, a control system for the movement of electrodes in an arc steelmaking furnace was synthesised. The proposed control system makes it possible to eliminate unproductive electrode movements due to changes in the situation in other phases of the arc steelmaking furnace and simplifies the application of modern methods of synthesising a control system for such complex objects. The results obtained in the mathematical model have confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed control system for the movement of electrodes in an arc steelmaking furnace.