Mathematical modelling of mill set-up in hot strip rolling of high strength steels

Abstract

Abstract This paper describes research work concerned with the development of finite-element simulations and constitutive equations to be used to idealise the hot strip rolling process and to aid in the improvement of online mill set-up for new grades of strip steels, i.e. carbon manganese, HSLA. Hot deformation test data were obtained using plane strain compression testing and were utilised to develop approximate constitutive equations to idealise the flow stress for a given material. These equations were based on the high stress law and were compared with the plane strain compression tests. The relationships were incorporated into finite-element models using the ABAQUS/Explicit software package. The finite-element models simulated all seven finishing stands of the hot mill and were verified and compared to the measured rolling loads and to predicted rolling loads from Ekelund and Sims rolling models.