Fe-Simulation of Hot Continuous Rolling of 40Cr Alloy Steel Round Bar and Roll Pass Design

Abstract

40Cr alloy steel is widely used in the mechanical manufacturing industry and the quality of its rolled round bar has a great consequence on the quality and useful time of the final mechanical parts. By analyzing the characteristics of thermal plasticity of 40Cr steel, the Hensel-Spittel flow stress model of 40Cr steel was established in this study. For the possible continuous rolling schedule of Φ80mm 40Cr steel from 200mm×200mm billet, the advanced technology of viscoplastic FEM by LARSTRAN/SHAPE was used to create 3-D thermo-mechanical coupled simulation models for 8-pass hot continuous rolling processes. From the rolling process simulation the stress, strain, temperature distribution and rolling force variation were obtained. The simulation results included the comparison of plastic deformation of round pass with curved side wall and round pass with straight-side wall as well as the cause of rolling defect (e.g. crack). Based on the numerical analysis the reliable roll pass sequence wa constructed, which was verified by actual tests.