Utilization of Fluctuations in Active Power Consumption of an Electric Arc Furnace for Optimizing the Slag Foaming Process

Production cost reduction is one of the main goals which have to be achieved by modern melt shops. Optimisation of various phases of the melting process carried out in a steelmaking electric arc furnace is one of the ways to achieve required targets. The present paper reveals the details of the stage of research consideration of power consumption fluctuations, or rather the level of its stabilization, in determining the optimal moment to introduce the foaming agent. In analysis, it was decided to use the ‘moving coefficient of variation. The aim of the conducted statistical analysis was to determine the width of the time interval for calculating the moving coefficient of variation of active power and the width of the time interval for its stable, predetermined value. Within this analysis, the non-parametric Friedman test was used, a post-hoc test in the variant proposed by Dunn was used, taking into account the so-called Bonferroni correction. Ultimately, the foamer dispenser control procedure was formulated.