Unsteady state work-roll temperature distribution during continuous hot slab rolling

Predicting temperature distributions in the work-rolls during the hot slab rolling process is of great importance to mill designers. This is because the temperature distribution and the dimensional accuracy of the slab being rolled are both dependent on the work-roll temperature. In addition, the life of the roll is also a function of its own temperature distribution. In this paper, the unsteady state heat transfer equations with time dependent boundary conditions are coupled with a two-dimensional finite element method to predict the work-roll temperature distribution during the continuous hot slab rolling process. To achieve an accurate temperature field, the effects of various factors including the thermal relationships of the work-roll and the metal slab, the idling work-roll revolutions, the rolling speed, the slab/roll interfacial heat transfer coefficient, and the magnitude of the thickness reduction of the slab at each deformation pass are taken into account. Comparisons between the predicted and published experimental results are used to illustrate the validity of the mathematical model. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.