Real-time prediction and adaptive adjustment of continuous casting based on deep learning

Abstract Digitalisation of metallurgical manufacturing, especially technological continuous casting using numerical models of heat and mass transfer and subsequent solidification has been developed to achieve high manufacturing efficiency with minimum defects and hence low scrappage. It is still challenging to perform adaptive closed-loop process adjustment using high-fidelity computation in real-time. To address this challenge, surrogate models are a good option to replace the high-fidelity model, with acceptable accuracy and less computational time and cost. Based on deep learning technology, here we developed a real-time prediction (ReP) model to predict the three-dimensional (3D) temperature field distribution in continuous casting on millisecond timescale, with mean absolute error (MAE) of 4.19 K and mean absolute percent error (MAPE) of 0.49% on test data. Moreover, by combining the ReP model with machine learning technology—Bayesian optimisation, we realised the rapid decision-making intelligent adaptation of the operating parameters for continuous casting with high predictive capability. This innovative and reliable method has a great potential in the intelligent control of the metallurgical manufacturing process.