Simulation of deformation and temperature in multi-pass caliber rolling

A method of numerical simulation for hot caliber rolling is proposed, in which the deformation of material is analyzed in the conventional manner by three-dimensional rigid-plastic finite-element method (FEM), whilst the temperature distribution in the material is calculated using a combination of three-dimensional FEM and one-dimensional finite-difference method (FDM). First, the method is proven to be effective through analysis of single-pass rolling with various roll velocities. Next, the method is applied to a simulation of the deformation and the temperature of the material in an actual caliber rolling process, in which round bars are produced from square billets after 16 passes, and strain and temperature distributions in the cross-section of the material are obtained. The calculated shape and the surface temperature of the material are found to agree well with measured values. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.