Thermo-mechanical analysis of ribbed strip rolling by a three-dimensional rigid-visco-plastic FEM

Previous research has shown that the rolling of ribbed strip involves a significant local residual deformation, and the distribution of the rib height between the middle rib and side rib is non-uniform. In this paper, the authors focus on the analysis of the distribution and pulling down of rib height, and formulate a three-dimensional thermo-mechanical simulation of the ribbed strip rolling taking into account friction variation in the roll bite. The theoretical analysis is based on the utilization of the finite element flow formulation taking into account friction variation to characterize the material flow, to predict the distribution of rib height, and to estimate rolling force, rib height and pulling down of rib height. The numerical predictions were verified by the experiments performed in a hot rolling mill. Results of the simulation show that when the thermal and mechanical combination is conducted, the calculated pulling down of rib height can be reduced, and the computed values are in good agreement with the experimental values. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.