Rolling of aluminium 2: practical aspects for finite element model development

The finite element technique has been selected to study the hot rolling process because it offers the best alternative to analyse the complexities of the process. These include: non-linearity of the material behaviour, boundary conditions and contact. It has been shown from the previous chapter that the method is capable of handling these non-linearities and has been used successfully to analyse a wide range of metal forming operations. This chapter aims to point out the modelling techniques and methodologies (steps) involved in undertaking thermo-mechanical simulations of the rolling process. This is done by means of a series of case studies