Modelling Static and Dynamic Kinetics of Microstructure Evolution in Type 316 Stainless Steel During Hot Rolling

Abstract

In this study, the kinetics of microstructure evolution during hot rolling of type 316 austenitic stainless steel is investigated. First, its kinetics during the dynamic and static events, known as the material genome, is driven by single- and double-compression tests at several temperatures and strain rates. Inverse analysis is used to obtain the flow curves and regression analysis is applied on the coefficients of these flow curves in order to obtain the parameters of the constitutive equations. This new material genome is then used as the boundary condition on an incremental type formulation, taking the dislocation density as the representative variable, to estimate the flow stress and microstructural evolution after the transient changes during rolling schedules of seamless pipes. Actual rolling schedules are simulated and the microstructural changes are compared to industrial data. The outcome of the grain size evolution was reproduced reasonably well showing that proposed methodology can be used to simulate a complex thermomechanical process akin to the rolling schedules of seamless pipes.