Open Access Conference Proceedings

<div>Operational constrains of Hot Dip Galvanizing Line – HDGL - management are more and more challenging: competitiveness (quality/yield improvement – productivity increase – OPEX reduction), flexibility (complex product-mix) and environment footprint reduction (lower energy consumption, raw material savings). These challenges can be addressed with the usage of digital tools enhancing the process optimization and automatic control of production lines.For that purpose, physical-based models have been built and industrially implemented in order to predict microstructural evolutions during annealing and related mechanical properties of flat-C steels at the line exit.These models rely on the description of the main metallurgical phenomena, i.e. recrystallisation, phase transformation and precipitation during heating, soaking and cooling.The accurate design of each individual metallurgical brick and sequencing of the models enables the precise description of final microstructural characteristics: phases sizes, fractions and composition. These features are then used for the prediction of mechanical properties thanks to mean-field dislocation-based model.Finally, these models are implemented in an optimizer (so-called MasterModel in the proposed solution) and coupled with a thermal process control model to manage in the most efficient way HDGL, enabling fine control of coil to coil properties and chemical composition heterogeneities. This digital tool is called SmartLineTM.The proposed approach and model’s combination cover large chemical composition and steel grades spectrum from conventional ferrite-based alloys to Advanced High Strength Steels.</div>

Keywords: Hot Dip Galvanizing Line, Digitalization, metallurgical models

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