Investigation of two square-to-round multipass rolling sequences by the slab-finite element method

Abstract With the spread and elongation taking place simultaneously in the roll gap, roll pass designs for shape rolling are difficult to analyze. In the past, a few three dimensional analyses have been attempted but due to the large computational effort required, even for simulating a single pass, they have not been applied to multipass rolling. This paper presents the simulation of square-to-round six pass hot rolling of stainless steel billet on a continuous mill by a finite-slab element computer code TASKS. Results are compared with an earlier TASKS simulation of square-to-round seven pass sequence. Even though the six pass sequence involves larger reduction in area than the seven pass sequence, it provides for a more uniform distribution in effective strains in the final product. Comparisons also indicate that the uniformity of area reduction in the roll gap of a pass and from pass to pass can be used as a criterion for roll pass design evaluation and improvement.