Finite Element Analysis of Temperatures, Metal Flow, and Roll Pressure in Hot Strip Rolling

This paper presents a new approach for the analysis of hot strip rolling processes. The approach is based on the finite element method and capable of predicting velocity field in the strip, temperature field in the strip, temperature field in the roll, and roll pressure. Basic finite element formulations are described with emphasis on modeling roll pressure and friction at the roll-strip interface and on treating the numerical instability resulting from a standard Galerkin formulation. Comparison with the theoretical solutions found in the literature is made to evaluate the accuracy of the temperature solutions. An iterative scheme is developed for dealing with strong correlations between the metal flow characteristics and thermal behavior of the roll-strip system. A series of process simulations are carried out to investigate the effect of various process parameters including interface friction, interface heat transfer coefficient, roll speed, reduction in thickness, and spray zone. The results are shown and discussed.