A new modeling approach that couples fundamental metallurgical principles of dynamical recrystallization with the cellular automaton method was developed to simulate the microstructural evolution linking with the plastic flow behavior during thermomechanical processing. The driving force for the nucleation and growth of dynamically recrystallized grain is the volume free energy due to the stored dislocation density of a deformation matrix. The growth terminates the impingement. The model is capable of simulating kinetics, microstructure and texture evolution during recrystallization. The predictions of microstructural evolution agree with the experimental results.
Based on the variation of dislocation density, which is influenced by rolling variables in hot strip-rolling process, a yield stress model was constructed. An integrated model was built to predict the temperature variation and microstructure evolution, in which the Orowan formula was used to calculate the stress and strain, and the finite difference method was adopted to determine the temperature field. This model was applied to predict the temperature variation, austenite grain size and phase transformation in hot strip-rolling process, and the prediction results are in good agreement with the measured ones on 2 050 mm continuous hot strip-rolling mill.
A three-dimensional model for strip hot rolling was developed, in which the plastic deformation of strip, the thermal crown of rolls, roll deflection and flattening were calculated by rigid-plastic finite element method, finite difference method, influential function method and elastic finite element method respectively. The roll wear was taken into consideration. The model can provide detailed information such as rolling pressure distribution, contact pressure distribution between backup rolls and work rolls, deflection and flattening of work rolls, lateral distribution of strip thickness, and lateral distribution of front and back tensions. The finish rolling on a 1 450 mm hot strip mill was simulated.
