Analysis of symmetrical flatness actuator efficiencies for UCM cold rolling mill by 3D elastic–plastic FEM

As the basis for a flatness control system, flatness actuator efficiency describes an actuator’s control ability, but it is difficult to obtain an actuator efficiency factor accurately through rolling tests because of the complicated subsidiary facilities of the mill. This paper proposes a novel simulation approach that is applied to obtain the actuator efficiency factors in terms of work roll bending, intermediate roll bending, and intermediate roll shifting for a six-high Universal Crown Control mill (UCM mill). A three-dimensional (3D) finite element model of the mill was developed to simulate the dynamic strip rolling process. The validation of rolling experiments shows that this model has enough precision, where the relative error of strip thickness between simulated values and actual values is less than 1.0%. The effects of the actuators on strip thickness profile, crown, edge drop, and elongation difference of longitudinal fibers were investigated. In the case of different actuator parameters, the curves of actuator efficiency factors were obtained and quantitatively descripted by truncated Legendre orthogonal polynomials. The mechanism of flatness control was studied based on an analysis of the actuator’s influence rule on the elastic deflection of rolls and 3D distribution of rolling pressure. The results indicate that the curves of actuator efficiency factors have a symmetrical upside-down v-shaped distribution and contain the quadratic and quartic flatness components. The actuator efficiency factors of intermediate roll shifting have a nonignorable variation with the change of actuator parameters. This study is the first attempt to obtain actuator efficiency factors for UCM mill using an elastic–plastic finite element method.