MODELING OF HEAT-TRANSFER, PLASTIC-FLOW AND MICROSTRUCTURAL EVOLUTION DURING SHAPE ROLLING

The paper describes investigations on the development of an integrated model allowing for the prediction of heat transfer, plastic now, and microstructure evolution during shape rolling. Finite element method was adopted to describe the heat transfer and plastic now phenomena. Generalized plane strain method is applied to modelling the 3D problem using 2D finite element formulation. In consequence, significant savings of the computing time and required memory can be obtained. A computer program in FORTRAN 77 was written according to the developed mathematical model. Data on temperature, strain and strain rate relevant to the rail rolling process were computed and employed to model microstructure evolution in austenite.