ROBUST SHAPE CONTROL IN A SENDZIMIR COLD-ROLLING STEEL MILL

The shape central problem for a Sendzimir 20-roll cold rolling steel m ill is characterised by operation over a wide range of conditions aris ing from roll changes, changes in rolling schedules and changes in mat erial gauge, width and hardness. Previous approaches to the problem su ggest storing a large number of precompensator matrices to cater for t he full range of operating conditions. This paper, on the other hand, attempts to synthesise a controller which is optimally robust to chang es in the conditions associated with the rolling cluster, resulting in a reduced storage requirement for the controlling computer. The perfo rmance of the robust controller is evaluated via nonlinear simulation. Copyright (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.