Proof of concept for controlling an electromagnetic brake using contactless inductive flow tomography

The development of closed control loops for electromagnetic actuators in continuous casting based on the current flow conditions of the liquid steel in the mold is challenging due to the opaqueness and the high temperature of the melt. In this work we will investigate the applicability of Contactless Inductive Flow Tomography (CIFT) as a real-time measurement technique for controlling the strength of a ruler type Electromagnetic Brake (EMBr) in a model of a continuous caster. Because CIFT relies on the measurement of the small flow induced perturbation of an applied magnetic field, the measurement system is very sensitive to changes of the strength the EMBr. We will shortly delineate the developed compensation method that is able to cope with the non-linearity of the ferromagnetic yoke of the brake. In combination with the real-time reconstruction algorithm for solving the linear
inverse problem, CIFT is able to visualize the flow structure in the mold in real-time with a time resolution of 1 Hz.

As a proof of concept of a closed control loop, we implemented a simple controller which switches the EMBr off, when the impingement positions of the jets at the narrow faces are below a critical threshold. The implemented controller and the experiment will be described in detail.