Developing Digital Twin for Electromechanical System of Rolling Stand in Simulink Real Time

The development of digital twins (DTs) of industrial electrical systems is attributed to the need for the reduction of time and material resource inputs during their virtual commissioning (VC). The same problem occurs during renovation with complete or partial equipment replacement and/or control systems. These problems can be efficiently solved by developing object-oriented DTs based on the Simulink Real Time software and using hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HIL). This software is compatible with Matlab Simulink and the Simscape package, which makes it suitable for the industrial usage. The authors suggest a HIL-based approach that helps make a virtual real-time computer model, with process control signals coming from the industrial PLC that controls the real physical object. This problem occurred during the renovation of the horizontal stand electric drives of a 5000 plate mill. The authors provide the flow charts of the electromechanical system and the object-oriented DT. The implementation of DT in Matlab Simulink Desktop Real Time is reviewed in laboratory settings. The authors present the block structures that make up a virtual model of the electromechanical system. The developed DT was used to adjust control algorithms and controllers and study the dynamic modes over a rolling cycle. The adequacy of the processes was tested by comparing the oscillograms obtained with the developed DT and the rolling mill. The authors stress the feasibility of developing DTs on the Simulink Real Time platform using HIL simulation during VC and renovation of complex industrial objects.