Continuous simulation and industrial processes: Electrode consumption in arc furnaces

The initial purpose of the present study was to test the capacity of a common simulation language for describing a continuous system. When such a simulation model is developed, the state variables are continuously changing and their time variations depend on other state variables, both continuous and discrete. In this case a simple event scheduler, like most discrete simulative packages, is no longer able to model the phenomenon, and a time integration of the characteristic relationships involved is required. The study illustrates the authors’ experience in simulating the electrode consumption in an electric arc furnace for steel production. This process can be regarded as a significant test for continuous simulators, because of the features of the variables (both discrete and continuous) describing the system behaviour. Great attention was paid to the relationships linking the consumption of the electrodes and the fusion process parameters, e.g. electric power and current. From this point of view, the work acquired a second and equally important significance, as the development and set-up of a reliable simulation model allows the analysis and comparison of different production strategies.