Calculation of thermal crowning in work rolls from their cooling curves

Abstract

A series of temperature measurements was made on the surface of work rolls left to cool in air after they were extracted from hot and cold rolling steel strip mills. The information was fed into a mathematical model which was developed to compute the temperature distribution within the rolls at the moment of their extraction, which will correspond to that of the steady-state process. Measurements on three positions on the barrel length (close to either side and at the centre) were fitted into a second degree polynomial to calculate the heat flux. It was found that the rolls installed in the cold mills are subjected to a higher thermal load, as their cooling system only delivers at the entry side of the strip. It was possible to relate the magnitude of the expansion to the highest temperature recorded in each roll, a feature which can be critical in the cold mills investigated. It is concluded that this type of tool can be used to understand the phenomena behind shape defects in either cold or hot rolled strip.