GPU-based model predictive control for continuous casting spray cooling control system using particle swarm optimization

Abstract Model predictive control (MPC) for spray cooling control system requires a repeated online solution of an optimization problem that includes partial differential equations (PDEs). To simulate the future temperature behavior of steel billets, 3D dynamic heat transfer model is used. The special solution domain of PDEs has led to large computation cost, which is the main challenge in the real-time practical application of spray cooling control system. Meanwhile, the heat transfer coefficients need to be identified using the measured surface temperature. This work presents a two-level parallel solution method implemented on a Graphics processing unit (GPU) for MPC of spray cooling control systems and a weighted least squares modified conjugate gradient method (WLS–MCG) for identification of heat transfer coefficients. Two-level parallel solution method consists of parallel-based heat transfer model and stream parallel particle swarm optimization (PSO). PSO is used to solve the optimization problem. WLS–MCG consists of the weighted least squares (WLS) and modified conjugate gradient method (MCG). The experimental results show that the two-level parallel solution method has good computational performance and achieves satisfactory control performance.