Effect of Process Parameters on Thermal History in Hot Rolling Process

Abstract

Thermo-mechanical coupled FEM and isoparametric technology are used to build FEM model of hot-strip rolling and the coupled equation is solved using updated-Lagrange method in this paper. All kinds of thermal transfer phenomena are considered, such as conduction at the rolls-workpiece interface, convection and radiation between the workpiece and the surrounding environment, water cooling and heat generation due to plastic deformation and friction work. Numerical simulations are carried out to examine the effect of reduction rate, friction factor, radius of the work-roll, rotating speed of the roll, initial strip thickness and tension on rolling temperature of the strip. It is found that rolling temperature increases with the increases of reduction rate, friction factor, tension and rolling speed. The initial strip thickness and roll radius have also major effect on temperature distribution. In addition, the thermal cycles at the different points of the strip are simulated, which provides reasonable agreement with the reported results available in the literature.