Thermo-mechanical modeling of two phase rolling and microstructure evolution in the hot strip mill Part-II. Microstructure evolution

This paper deals with the evolution of microstructure through the thickness of the strip in the hot strip mill. DEFORM-HT, an add-on heat treatment module with the commercial finite element software, DEFORM was used towards this end. Microstructure evolution equations available in literature were incorporated in the HT module. The type and extent of recrystallisation and austenite grain size were obtained for plain carbon steel strips of final thickness 2.0, 3.5 and 4.0 mm. The microstructure is validated against experimental data for ferrite microstructure and mechanical properties