COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN FEM AND SLAB METHOD FOR FLAT ROLLING PROCESS

Modelling of flat rolling processes has great interest not only from the point of view of process analysis but also for the industrial sectors because of the great amount of materials which are produced and consumed each year. In this work, the flat rolling process is analyzed by using FEM and considering different process conditions such as: reduction, velocity of the strip and friction coefficient, among others. Plane strain conditions will be assumed, which is in fine agreement with actual results. In order to evaluate deformations and stresses within both the strip and the rolls a two-dimensional meshing has been considered. This will allow us to determine the deflection of the rolls for different strip thickness. Moreover, a comparison between numerical and analytical results obtained by using the slab method approach is presented. A four-high rolling mills configuration has been employed to carry out the FEM simulations