Real-time simulation of temperature in hot rolling rolls

Model-based process control is widely used in metal working. Often, simplified real-time capable numerical models replace or support measurement. In this work, we investigate the simulation of temperature in hot rolling rolls based on a 3-D model of a roll which is fast enough to act as soft sensor during operation. The involved discretization of the heat equation in cylindrical space is done via simple finite volumes and propagation in time is done via a forward Euler method. This allows a parallel and efficient implementation for GPGPUs. We validate our code against analytic solutions and measurements, provide a detailed performance analysis, and show simulation results for realistic rolls.