Simulation of deformation and temperature in multi-pass continuous rolling by three-dimensional FEM

This paper presents a new method for modeling a rod and wire continuous rolling process. Three-dimensional FE models of the whole rolling process are established by the proposed method that consists of a pushing technique of rigid body and a method of data transfer, and it is utilized to analyze the deformation and the temperature distribution of billet during the multi-pass rolling process. The pushing technique of rigid body is developed to keep the contact status between the deformable body and a rigid body and to push the deformable body forward during inter-pass time. The method of data mapping is adopted to transfer element field variations between meshes of different models by an interpolation function. The model was applied to simulate 18 stands rolling process of a 304 stainless steel and provides an insight into the process by studying the billet deformation and the temperature distribution. It shows fairly good agreement between the predictions and the measured values of temperature.