The analysis of data from sensors in structures subjected to extreme conditions such as the ones used in smelting processes is a great decision tool that allows knowing the behavior of the structure under different operational conditions. In this industry, the furnaces and the different elements are fully instrumented, including sensors to measure variables such as temperature, pressure, level, flow, power, electrode positions, among others. From the point of view of engineering and data analytics, this quantity of data presents an opportunity to understand the operation of the system under normal conditions or to explore new ways of operation by using information from models provided by using deep learning approaches. Although some approaches have been developed with application to this industry, it is still an open research area. As a contribution, this paper presents an applied deep learning temperature prediction model for a 75 MW electric arc furnace, which is used for ferronickel production. In general, the methodology proposed considers two steps: first, a data cleaning process to increase the quality of the data, eliminating both redundant information as well as atypical and unusual data, and second, a multivariate time series deep learning model to predict the temperatures in the furnace lining. The developed deep learning model is a sequential one based on GRU (gated recurrent unit) layer plus a dense layer. The GRU + Dense model achieved an average root mean square error (RMSE) of 1.19 °C in the test set of 16 different thermocouples radially distributed on the furnace.

Cerro Matoso SA (CMSA) is located in Montelibano, Colombia. It is one of the biggest producers of ferronickel in the world. The structural health monitoring process performed in the electric arc furnaces at CMSA is of great importance in the maintenance and control of ferronickel production. The control of thermal and dimensional conditions of the electric furnace aims to detect and prevent failures that may affect its physical integrity. A network of thermocouples distributed radially and at different heights from the furnace wall, are responsible for monitoring the temperatures in the electric furnace lining. In order to optimize the operation of the electric furnace, it is important to predict the temperature at some points. However, this can be difficult due the number of variables which it depends on. To predict the temperature behavior in the electric furnace lining, a deep learning model for time series prediction has been developed. Long Short Term Memory (LSTM), Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU), and other combinations were tested. GRU characterized by its multivariate and multi output type had the lowest square error. A study of the best input variables for the model that influence the temperature behavior is also carried out. Some of the input variables are the power, current, impedance, calcine chemistry, temperature history, among others. The methodology to tune the parameters of the GRU deep learning model is described. Results show an excellent behavior for predicting the temperatures 6 h into the future with root mean square errors of 3%. This model will be integrated to a software that obtains data for a time window from the Distributed Control System (DCS) to feed the model. In addition, this software will have a graphical user interface used by the operators furnace in the control room. Results of this work will improve the process of structural control and health monitoring at CMSA.

Within a model of scientific and technical cooperation between the smelting company Cerro Matoso S.A. (CMSA) and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL), a project was developed in order to take advantage of the data that were obtained from a sensor network in a ferronickel electric arc furnace at CMSA to improve the structural health monitoring process. Through this sensor network, online data are obtained on the temperature measurement along the refractory lining of the electric furnace, as well as heat fluxes and chemical characterization of the minerals on each stage of the process. These data are stored in a local database, which stores several years of historical data with valuable information for control and analysis purposes. These data reflect the behavior of the industrial process and can be used in the development of machine learning models to predict some of the electric arc furnace operation parameters, and thus improve the decision-making process. Currently, most of the data are analyzed by the experts of the structural control department, but, due to the large amount of data, the development of analytical tools is necessary to support their work. This paper proposes a data cleaning approach for improving data quality by creating a set of rules and filters based on both expert judgment and best practices in data quality. A statistical analysis was also carried out in order to detect variables with anomalies and outliers, which do not reflect real operation parameters and belong to anomalous data that should not be considered for modelling. With the proposed process, the quality of the data was improved and abnormal data were eliminated in order to consolidate a clean data set for later use in the development of machine learning models. This work contributes on understanding data cleansing rules that must be considered in order to reflect the real behavior of the electric furnace operation for further analysis and modeling tasks.