Research on Modelling of Grate Cooler Based on Typical Operating

Conditions

Hongliang Yu1, Yongmei Sun2, Bing Huang1 and Zheng Zheng1

1
School of Electrical Engineering, University of Jinan, Jinan 250022
2
Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan 250014

Keywords: Grate cooler pressure, Model, Typical conditions.

Abstract: In the long-term operation of grate coolers, the application of a single model to grate cooler control has
great limitations. Based on the statistical analysis of production site data and the expert experience of
cement plant operators, this paper identifies the typical working reference points for the grate coolers for
cement clinker production lines and typical operating conditions. After that, a dynamic model of the
continuous characteristics of each typical operating condition was established. Simulation results prove the
validity and practicality of the above model.

1 INTRODUCTION clinker calcined in the rotary kiln falls from the kiln
hood into the grate cooler, with the reciprocating
The grate cooler is the main equipment for clinker motion of the grate plate, the high temperature
cooling and heat recovery in the sintering process of clinker is distributed on the full grate bed, to form a
cement clinker, and maintaining the grate cooler layer of material with a certain thickness. The high
pressure stability is the basis for ensuring efficient pressure cold air blown into the plenum below the
heat exchange between the clinker of high grate cooler is quickly blown into the material layer
temperature and the air of normal temperature. The to cool the clinker. While cooling the clinker, the
grate cooler pressure is affected by the multi- cooling wind exchanges heat with the high-
variables such as the grate speed, raw material temperature clinker and turns into hot air, This is the
quantity, and the temperature of the material exiting secondary air and the tertiary air in cement
the kiln. Therefore, based on expert knowledge and production. They are fed into the rotary kiln system
historical data analysis, this paper has determined through a secondary air duct and a tertiary air duct
the typical working condition template of grate respectively. After cooling, the small pieces of
cooler. Afterwards, a modeling study was performed clinker can fall through the grid screen into the
on each typical working condition with continuous conveyor, and the large pieces of clinker must be
dynamic characteristics, which provided a good broken into the conveyor. In the grate cooler cooling
basis for subsequent grate cooler pressure control[1- process, the speed of cooling and the degree of
3]. sufficient cooling are of critical importance to ensure
the quality and thermal efficiency of the clinker. In
addition, there is an important goal is to stabilize the
secondary air temperature, and the thickness of the
2 GRATE COOLER TECHNOLOGY material layer is the key to stabilize the secondary
INTRODUCTION AND air temperature. If the material layer is too thick, the
WORKING REFERENCE cooling air cannot blow through the clinker, the
clinker cooling is uneven, and the effect is not good,
POINT DETERMINATION and due to too much high-temperature clinker
damage to the sampan; If the material layer is too
2.1 Grate Cooler Technology thin, the cooling wind will quickly blow through the
clinker, without sufficient heat exchange, resulting
The main function of the grate cooler is to cool the in a decrease in the temperature of the second and
high temperature clinker, the high temperature third air, and also affect the heat recovery for waste
heat power generation. However, in actual ensure a balanced fan speed constant. Therefore,
production, the thickness of the material layer is balancing the fan current is also very important,
difficult to measure directly, so the pressure of the which helps the operator to perform timely
material cooler is usually used to reflect the operations and stabilize production.
thickness of the material layer, the greater the
thickness, the greater the pressure. Therefore, based 2.2.3 Kiln Current and Grate Cooler
on the idea of hybrid systems, this paper establishes Pressure
a grate cooler control model based on grate cooler
pressure output.[4-5] The Kiln current t is also a key parameter in the
grate cooler control, which has important guiding
2.2 The Dominant Factors Affecting significance for the change of the material quantity
the Pressure of Grate Cooler in the rotary kiln. At the same time, it can also
intuitively reflect the abnormal phenomena such as
“off the kiln skin” and “burning flow” in the rotary
2.2.1 Grate Speed and Grate Cooler kiln. When the kiln skin falls, the force of the kiln
Pressure body will increase instantly, so that the current of
the kiln main body will increase instantly. In
The most directly controlled grate cooler pressure is addition, when the burning flow occurs in the rotary
the grate speed (abbreviation: grate speed). Adjust kiln, the current of the kiln main machine will
the speed of the propelled material by adjusting the instantly drop, and the clinker after the burning flow
speed of the raft, that is, by adjusting the speed of will fall into the grate cooler, and will form a large
the grate speed to change the pressure of the cooler. block under the effect of cooling, so that the grate
Change the pressure and stabilize it at the optimal cooler pressure will increase. Therefore, considering
layer thickness. Under the condition that the cooling the relationship between the kiln host current and the
material flow rate of the grate cooler remained grate cooler pressure also has certain reference
unchanged under the same material, the greater the value.
thickness of the clinker material layer, the greater
the grate cooler pressure and the need to increase the 2.2.4 Raw Material Quantity and Grate
grate speed; If the thickness of the material layer is Cooler Pressure
smaller, the pressure of the grate cooler is smaller
and the idle speed needs to be reduced. This is the The quantity of raw material to be discharged
current main control technology for the grate cooler: determines how much clinker is produced. That is, it
adjust the grate cooler pressure by idling to stabilize is determined how many clinker coolers need to be
the layer thickness. Therefore, the grate speed and cooled, and it is also common for the production site
pressure of the grate cooler are important variables to have abrupt changes in the amount of raw meal.
in grate cooler modeling. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the impact of
the raw material discharge amount in the grate
2.2.2 Balance Fan Current and Grate Cooler cooler control. When the quantity of raw material is
Pressure increased, after a certain time delay, the pressure
will increase, and vice versa. In the cement
According to the introduction of the cement plant's production process, the operation of stopping the
on-site sintering system control operator, the balance material will often occur. Therefore, it is necessary
fan, that is, the cooling fan of the grate cooler, is to take into account the sudden decrease in the
very important for the control of the grate cooler, quantity of material to be discharged in order to
with good real-time performance and high reference ensure a stable grate cooler pressure.
value. For the "off the kiln skin" and other abnormal
conditions can be real-time and accurate response 2.2.5 Secondary Air Temperature and Grate
and to some extent, the pressure of grate coolers is Cooler Pressure
reflected. The performance is that when the balance
fan current increases, the wind pressure increases After the cooling wind blows through the clinker, it
and the grate cooler pressure decreases. When an exchanges heat with the high-temperature clinker to
abnormal operating condition occurs, the parameter form secondary and tertiary air. It is used in the grate
can also change significantly, and the current drop is cooler and the rotary kiln for combustion, which is
greater. It represents a larger kiln skin off,it need to crucial to ensure high heat recovery efficiency. At
the same time, the chiller clinker temperature is a
key indicator for the quality of clinker. The 3 RESEARCH ON MODELLING
secondary air temperature can effectively reflect the OF GRATE COOLER BASED
temperature of the grate cooler clinker, which
directly affects the thermal efficiency. The higher ON TYPICAL OPERATING
the secondary air temperature, the more heat is CONDITIONS
recovered and the higher the thermal efficiency.
Therefore, there is a certain relationship between the Grate speedand grate cooler pressure model:
secondary air temperature and the grate cooler
pressure. 656.64
G(s) =
(1 + 0.001s)(1 + 111.74s)(1 + 111.68s)
2.3 Grate Cooler Typical Working (1)
Reference Point Determination
Relying on the historical data of a cement
production line in Shandong Province for statistical
analysis, combined with the expert experience of
operators, a typical working point for a grate cooler
with a daily output of 5,000 tons of cement clinker
production line can be established. As shown in
Table 1.

Table 1: Reference points for key process parameters in

grate cooler systems.

Figure 1: grate speed and grate cooler pressure model test.

Balance fan current and grate cooler pressure

model:

1.97 *10 −5 (1 − 1.3 *10 6 s)

G(s) =
s(1 + 254.48s)
（2）

Figure 2: Balanced fan current and grate coolerpressure

model verification.
 Kiln current and grate cooler pressure model: Secondary air temperature and grate cooler
pressure model（formula：5）：
13.66(1 + 5183.2s)
G( s) =
(1 + 5353.8s)(1 + 355.69s)(1 + 950.39s) 0.46(1 + 36074 s )
（3） G(s) =
(1 + 39518s )(1 + 0.17 s )(1 + 62.87 s )
（5）

Figure 3: Kiln current and grate cooler pressure model

validation.
Figure 5: Secondary air temperature and grate cooler
Input raw material quantity and grate cooler pressure model verification.
pressure data collected into the system identification
toolbox, can get birth raw material quantity and The above six single input and single output
grate cooler pressure model（formula：4）： models for grate coolers obtained from the
MATLAB system identification toolbox. Entering
the verification data in the system identification
3.9 *10 −5 (1 − 1.6 *10 6 s ) − 27.03s
G( s) = e toolbox proves that the model has certain rationality.
s (1 + 111.45s )(1 + 109.24 s ) After that, the least squares algorithm was
（4）
applied to obtain the grate speed, secondary air
temperature, and grate cooler pressure models （
formula：6）：

y(n + 2) = -22.29+1.13y(n+1)- 0.14y(n)

+34.64u(n + 2) -
46.80u(n +1) +13.88u(n) -1.02z(n + 2) - 0.24z(n +1) +1.32z(n)
（6）
Similarly, the quantity of raw material,
secondary air temperature and grate cooler pressure
model（formula：7）：

y(n + 2) = -188.00+ 0.93y(n+1)- 0.04y(n)-1.43u(n + 2) -

0.70u(n +1) +1.25u(n) +1.14z(n + 2) + 0.84z(n +1) - 0.86z(n)
（7）
Similarly, kiln host current, secondary air
Figure 4: Raw material quantity and grate cooler pressure temperature and grate cooler pressure model （
model verification. formula：8）：
y(n + 2) = 253.78+ 0.85y(n+1)+0.10y(n)
- 0.08u(n + 2) +
0.14u(n +1) +0.03u(n) - 0.19z(n + 2) +0.27z(n +1) - 0.07z(n) （8
）
Similarly, Balancing fan current, secondary air
temperature, and grate cooler pressure model （
formula：9）：

y(n + 2) = 91.07+ 0.80y(n+1)+ 0.17y(n)

+0.03u(n + 2) +
0.35u(n +1) −0.11u(n) +1.74z(n + 2) - 0.15z(n +1) −1.54z(n)
（9）
The above-mentioned four dynamic models of
the two-input single-output of the grate cooler
obtained by the least-squares method.
Grate speed, secondary air temperature and grate
cooler pressure model fitting curve shown in Figure Figure 7: Raw material quantity, secondary air
(6) temperature and grate cooler pressure model fitting curve.

Kiln master current, secondary air temperature

and grate cooler pressure for the grate cooler shown
in Figure(8)

Figure 6: Grate cooler idling, secondary air temperature

and grate cooler pressure model fitting curve.
Figure8: Kiln current, secondary air temperature and grate
Raw material quantity, secondary air temperature cooler pressure for the grate cooler.
and grate cooler pressure model fitting curve shown
in Figure(7) Grate cooler balance fan current, secondary air
temperature and grate cooler pressure model fitting
curve shown in Figure(9)
 2. Wang Xili, Wu Hongming. Hanging swing
trampoline coolers [J]. China Cement, 2005, 05: 67-
70.
3. Yang Huawei.Performance evaluation and
optimization of clinker cooler [D]. Beijing: Beijing
University of Technology, 2009.
4. Wei Wei. Modeling and Control of Cooling Process
for New Dry Cement Production [D]. Jinan: Jinan
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5. Guo Yan. Research and practice of clinker thickness
electrohydraulic control system for 5000t/d grate
cooler[D]. Qinhuangdao: Yanshan University, 2013.

Figure9: Grate cooler balance fan current, secondary air

temperature and grate cooler pressure model fitting curve.

4 CONCLUSIONS
In the long-term operation of the grate cooler, the
application of a single model to grate cooler model
control will have significant limitations. Based on
statistical analysis of production site data and expert
experience of cement plant operators, this paper
identifies the typical operating reference points for
the clinker cooler for a 5000 t/d cement clinker
production line and typical operating conditions.
Through simulation data verification, it proves the
practicability and effectiveness of the established
model and condition identifier, and lays a good
foundation for the subsequent grate cooler model
control.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work is supported by the Sino-European SMEs
research cooperation fund project on energy
conservation and emission reduction
(SQ2013ZOC600003).

REFERENCES
1. Wu Yuqin. Application of predictive control theory
in clinker cooling process of cement clinker [D].
Jinan University, 2007.