Materials Today: Proceedings 42 (2021) 650–659

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Simulation of plate rolling process using finite element method

Alok Kumar a,⇑, Sushant Rath b, Manoj Kumar c
a
Godavari Institute of Engineering & Technology, Rajahmundry, India
b
R&D for Iron & Steel, Steel Authority of India Limited, Ranchi, India
c
National Institute of Foundry & Forge Technology, Ranchi, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Finite Element Method (FEM) is an efficient tool to study high-temperature elastoplastic deformation of
Received 1 September 2020 material at roll bite in a hot rolling process. The roll bite stress field significantly changes with change in
Received in revised form 22 October 2020 the composition of workpiece material. In this paper, a study of roll bite deformation during a plate roll-
Accepted 3 November 2020
ing process is carried out for microalloyed grade of steel using DEFORM-3D software. Norton-Hoff flow
Available online 16 December 2020
stress constitutive equation, one of the material characteristics equations inbuilt of the software, was
used for the simulations. Coefficients and exponents of the constitutive equation were evaluated using
Keywords:
multivariable optimization technique from experimental data generated in Gleeble-3500, a dynamic
Rolling
FEM
thermo-mechanical simulator. Input parameters like dimensions of roll, slab and roller tables of an indus-
DEFORM trial plate mill were incorporated in the preprocessor module of DEFORM-3D software. The FEM software
Gleeble-3500 calculates stress, strain, roll force and temperature. The stress distribution at roll bite calculated by
Plate Mill DEFORM-3D software for microalloyed grade of steel is compared with that of plain carbon grade of steel.
Effect of temperature and coefficient of friction on roll bite stress distribution for microalloyed grade of
steel is discussed in the paper. Roll force predicted by the FEM software was validated with measured roll
force recorded from load cells of the industrial plate mill. The predicted roll force agrees well with the
measured values of roll force.
Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Second International
Conference on Recent Advances in Materials and Manufacturing 2020.

1. Introduction
Computer-based simulation of rolling process assists steel
plants to maximize mill productivity and minimize energy con-
sumption. Finite Element Method (FEM) based model is the most
accurate method for simulation of deformation processes because
it involves less simplified assumptions compared to slab method,
slip-line method and upper-bound method based models.
DEFORM-3D is one of the most well known commercial FEM soft-
ware to solve complex elastic and plastic deformation and heat
transfer problems. Niobium (Nb) is one of the most important
microalloying element added in steel to obtain fine grain structure
and also for precipitation of hard and stable carbide, nitride and
carbonitride during rolling operation to increase the strength. In
the present work, DEFORM-3D is used to simulate hot rolling of
Nb-microalloying grade steel in an industrial plate mill.
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: alokkumar@giet.ac.in (A. Kumar).
In integrated steel plants, flat products are hot rolled in plate
mills and hot strip mills. Hot strip mills have a series of roughing
stands and a series of finishing stands whereas plate mills have
one or two stands. In a multi-stand mill, the mill stiffness changes
from stand to stand. Effect of variation of mill stiffness does not
affect deformation behaviour in a single stand plate mill. The sim-
ulation study carried out under this work is aimed for the applica-
tion of an industrial plate mill having a single stand. The layout of
the mill is shown in Fig. 1. Dotted lines in the figure represent facil-
ities to be installed in future. The mill presently has one reheating
furnace for heating of slabs, a primary descaler for removal of
scales from slab surface, a reversing mill stand for rolling, acceler-
ated cooling line for thermo-mechanical processing to obtain
desired mechanical properties and hot leveller, marking machine
and cooling bed in down line.
Different researchers have tried FEM based simulation of the
rolling process. According to Li et al. [1], the reliability of the whole
simulation results is directly influenced by the accuracy of the FEM
model developed. Aretz et al. [2] suggested that FEM simulation
results on isotropic material may not be sufficiently accurate and

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.11.050
2214-7853/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Second International Conference on Recent Advances in Materials and Manufacturing 2020.
A. Kumar, S. Rath and M. Kumar
Table 1
Composition (% age wt.) of Nb-microalloyed Steel.
C Si Mn P S
0.12 0.22 1.24 0.015 0.015
Fig. 1. Layout of the industrial plate mill.
parameters involving metallurgical information in different direc-
tions may be incorporated to improve the accuracy of the simula-
tion. According to Mukhopadhyay et al. [3], the heat transfer
modelling during a rolling pass involves modelling both the slab
and the roll. In modelling contact between two surfaces, a roll
mesh size, compatible with the slab mesh size, is used. Since the
roll is significantly bigger than the slab, a large number of elements
are required to model the roll, which takes a long computational
time. To reduce the computational time Sellars and Kawai [4]
developed the ’phantom roll’ concept, with which thermal mod-
elling of the slab is possible without modelling the roll. This is
attractive for industrial modelling, because it reduces the compu-
tational time. Zhou[5] has developed a FEM based model which
can predict the temperature profiles in the strip and the work roll.
The roll loads, the roll life, the scale thickness on the strip is deter-
mined by mixed mechanism involves diffusion in the oxide and
transfer of molecular oxygen in the gaseous boundary. Fabir et al.
[6] explored the areas of finding value friction co-efficient, mod-
elling of microstructure evolution and analysis of rolled product
shape with the help of a combination of mathematical modelling
and pilot testing. Sheikh [7] has developed the mathematical
model which is capable of predicting the temperature distribution
and roll force of the hot rolling process. Petrov–Galerkin scheme
was employed to stabilize the numerical oscillation of finite ele-
ment analysis. According to Wisselink and Huetink [8], ALE formu-
lation can be used for rolling; this method can be employed for a
steady state process as complete 3D remeshing can be avoided.
Galantuccia and Tricarico [9] developed a model which uses para-
metric approach not only for the geometrical and for process
parameters such as rolling speed, roll radius and the initial and
final thickness of the plate, but also for the thermo-physical and
structural parameter. This approach gives the good flexibility in
simulating single rolling stand on tandem rolling line. According
to Cavaliere et al. [10], various physical parameters need to be cou-
pled like thermal evolution and mechanical deformation for accu-
rate simulation of steel rolling. Dyja and Korezak [11] used a finite-
element code of program ELROLL for computer simulation of roll-
ing which is based on rigid plastic formulation coupled with the
finite-element solution of the convective diffusion equation of heat
transport. According to Pauskar and Shivpuri [12], the grain size
has a significant effect on the flow behaviour and its inclusion will
in the flow stress model give a significantly better prediction of
rolling loads and material spread when used in FEM model.
Huang et al [13] has discussed the methodology of rolling of
Tailor rolled blanks (TRB) using DEFORM-3D software. It was help-
ful for industrial rolling of TRB. DEFORM-3D software was also
Materials Today: Proceedings 42 (2021) 650–659
Cr Al Nb Ti V Fe
0.012 0.014 0.037 0.032 0.021 Bal
used by Giorleo et al. [14] to study ring rolling process used in
the production of railway tyres, anti-friction bearings and different
ring-shaped workpieces for automotive energy production and
aerospace applications. The model was validated with industrial
data and assisted in environment-friendly process configuration.
Skripalenko et al. [15] carried out simulations of the cold rolling
process using DEFORM-3D software to calculate longitudinal and
transversal thickness variation of strips.
Simulation of the hot rolling process may be carried out in a
FEM based software which has the capability to simulate a coupled
heat transfer and plastic deformation problem. DEFORM-3D is one
of such software commercially available which is used in the pre-
sent work to simulate the hot rolling process of a plate mill. Flow
stress is the most important material property requirement for
simulation in this software. Experiments were carried out in
Gleeble-3500, a dynamic thermomechanical simulator, for deter-
mining flow stress of the Nb bearing microalloyed steel. After the
determination of coefficients and exponents of the constitutive
flow stress equation for the microalloyed steel, the modified equa-
tions were incorporated in the DEFORM-3D software. Simulations
were carried out at different temperature and coefficient of friction
conditions. Coefficient of friction is an un-measurable parameter in
a plate rolling process. Simulations were carried out to determine
the practical range of coefficient of friction using the inverse calcu-
lation from predicted and measured roll force data. Temperature,
on the other hand, is the most important factor affecting stress dis-
tribution at roll bite. Simulations were carried out at different tem-
perature values to calculate the stress field at roll bite. Finally, roll
force was predicted from the FEM simulations and was compared
with the measured roll force.
2. Experimental
To determine flow stress of Nb-microalloyed steel, experiments
were carried out in Gleeble-3500, a dynamic thermomechanical
simulator. The chemical composition of steel is shown in Table 1.
Full factorial design of experiment was carried out to measure
flow stress of Nb-microalloyed steel at different 6 different strain
rate and 3 different temperatures as shown in the first 2 columns
of Table 2. Cylindrical samples of size diameter 10 mm and height
12 mm were prepared for these tests. A total number of 18 tests
was carried out in Gleeble-3500. The ranges of strains and corre-
sponding ranges of flow stress recorded during the experiment
are given in the last two columns of Table 2.
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A. Kumar, S. Rath and M. Kumar Materials Today: Proceedings 42 (2021) 650–659

Table 2 Table 3
Experiments with Gleeble-3500. Coefficients of Norton-Hoff equation for Nb-microlloyes Steel.

Temp (C) Strain Rate (/s) Strain range Stress (MPa) range Flow Stress coefficient Values for Nb-microalloyed Steel
850 1 0.0462–0.599 126.36–191.04 K 0.003726

850 10 0.04954–0.599 128.67–228.43 e 5.996588
850 100 0.0499–0.599 267.73–427.24 n 3.553849
900 1 0.0500–0.5985 102.7–182.89 m 0.120084
900 10 0.0488–0.5987 124.98–210.93 b 4760.924
900 100 0.0528–0.5955 189.21–252.56
950 1 0.0499–0.5981 91.251–154.95
950 10 0.0498–0.5996 115.63–172.15
950 100 0.0510–0.5956 173.19–216.8 Table 4
1000 1 0.0530–0.5996 76.803–117.8 Typical Input Parameters for DEFORM-3D Simulation.
1000 10 0.0492–0.5987 100.17–161.56
DEFORM 3-D Input Parameter Typical Value
1000 100 0.0522–0.5978 166.96–220.440
1050 1 0.04903–0.599 66.309–104.07 Units SI
1050 10 0.4929–0.5987 89.864–142 Problem type transient
1050 100 0.050–0.59898 158.76–179.57 Solution type Deformation + Heat Transfer
1100 1 0.0504–0.5996 58.1–81.288 Geometry type Plane strain
1100 10 0.0496–0.599 80.34–127.1 Material Nb-microalloyed Steel
1100 100 0.0542–0.5938 144.52–168.98 Roll diameter 1095.08 mm
Roll barrel length 4600 mm
Initial length of slab 3196 mm
Entry thickness 220 mm
A typical measured flow stress measurement result is shown in Exit thickness 198.08 mm
Fig. 2 at temperature 1000 °C for the microalloyed steel for three Rolling speed 2.575 rad/s
different strain rate. From this curve, it may be concluded that Roll material type Rigid
on increasing strain rate, flow stress increases. This is due to Entry temperature 1203 °C
No of meshing element 32,000
decreasing strain hardening and recrystallization rate of the mate- Coefficient of friction 0.8
rial with increasing strain rate. When the strain rate is very high, Mesh size ratio 1.0
the flow stress curve is multi-peak in nature. This is due to the for- Roll temperature 50 °C
mation of mixed coarse and fine grains during deformation at high Ambient temperature 40 °C
Pusher length 1600 mm
strain rate.
Pusher height 250 mm
Pusher length 1000 mm
3. Determination of coefficients of flow stress equation
Two different techniques are generally used to determine coeffi-
The experimental data obtained from Gleeble-3500 experiment cients and exponents of the equations: graphical method and
was used to determine the coefficients of flow stress equation used parameter estimation technique using multivariable optimization.
in DEFORM-3D. The software has different flow stress constitutive The graphical method, in which two variables are changed keeping
equation like Johnson-cook model, Zerili–Armstrong model and one variable as constant, is not as efficient as multivariable opti-
Norton-Hoff model. The Norton-Hoff equation was selected for mization technique in which all variables are changed simultane-
the present simulation study. The equation is given by ously during minimization of the cost function. So, in the present
  study, the coefficients were determined using parameter estimation
b
r ¼ K ð þ Þn _ m exp ð1Þ technique. The root mean square error between calculated and
T abs
measured flow stress values at different strain, strain rate and tem-
where r is the flow stress, Tabs is the absolute temperature in the perature were minimized by the multivariable optimization tech-

Kelvin,is the strain and _ is the strain rate in sec-1. The terms e , nique. The coefficients of Norton-Hoff equation determined from
n, m,b and K are material dependent coefficients and exponents. this method are listed in Table 3.

Fig. 2. A plot for flow stress vs strain at temperature of 1000 °C for Nb-microalloyed Steel.

652
A. Kumar, S. Rath and M. Kumar
4. Results of computer simulations study
DEFORM-3D simulation consists of 3 parts: preprocessing, sim-
ulation and post-processing. In preprocessing, the input parame-
ters of deform simulation have been defined in a Graphical User
Interface (GUI). In the simulation, the software executes the FEM
code and the results are stored in a database. The output of the
simulation is visualized in another GUI called post-processor. A
typical set of input parameters used for DEFORM-3D simulation
is given in Table 4.
The material properties of Nb-microalloyed steel were added to
the DEFORM Material Library. The flow stress property was added
to the library as shown in the figure. All other properties were cop-
ied from other steel grades for this material.
The results obtained from different simulations carried out
using DEFORM-3D software for the industrial rolling process have
been discussed in this section. A comparative study has been car-
Fig. 3. Stress distribution at roll bite during hot rolling of Nb-microalloyed steel at temperature of 1203 °C and coefficient of friction of 0.8.
Fig. 4. Temperature distribution at roll bite during hot rolling of Nb-microalloyed steel at temperature of 1203 °C and coefficient of friction of 0.8.
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Materials Today: Proceedings 42 (2021) 650–659
ried out for stress and temperature distribution at roll bite for AISI
1015 grade and Nb-Microalloyed grade of steel. Effect of the coef-
ficient of friction and temperature on roll force is also discussed in
the following sections.
4.1. Stress distribution at roll bite for Nb-microalloyed steel
The stress distribution at roll bite during hot rolling of Nb-
Microalloyed steel at temperature 1203 °C and coefficient of fric-
tion 0.8 is shown in Fig. 3. The highest value of effective stress in
roll bite is 68.8 MPa. The stress in this region is 43–68.8 MPa.
The highest level of stress is found to be at the entry location
and then decreases along the bite length. The peak zone of stress
is high at the roll-slab interface and it decreases towards centre
of the slab. This is due to the variation of temperature and fric-
tional force components along slab thickness.
A. Kumar, S. Rath and M. Kumar
Fig. 5. Stress distribution at roll bite during hot rolling of AISI 1015 grade steel at temperature of 1203 °C and coefficient of friction of 0.8.
Fig. 6. Temperature Distribution at Roll bite during hot rolling of AISI 1015 grade steel at temperature 1203 °C and Coefficient of Friction 0.8.
The temperature distribution at roll bite during hot rolling of
Nb-Microalloyed steel at temperature 1203 °C and coefficient of
friction 0.8 is shown in Fig. 4. There is only 10 0C temperature dif-
ference between the centre and surface of the slab. Due to higher
temperature at the centre of the strip, the stress generated at the
roll bite is less as shown in Fig. 3. However, the temperature differ-
ence between the surface and the core of material for a 22 mm
diameter circular section workpiece during a cross-wedge rolling
process was calculated to be about 10–15 °C [1]. A similar result
is obtained in our case of plate rolling.
4.2. Comparative study of Nb-microalloyed and AISI 1015 steel
The stress distribution of AISI 1203 grade of steel at 1203 oC and
the coefficient of friction of 0.8 is shown in Fig. 5. The maximum
stress in this core was 45.4 MPa. The peak stress is found to be high
at the roll-slab interface and low at the centre of the strip. The cor-
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Materials Today: Proceedings 42 (2021) 650–659
responding distribution of temperature at roll bite is shown in
Fig. 6. But the temperature distribution is negligibly small in this
case. So, the decrease in the frictional component of stress is
responsible for the decrease in stress towards the centre of the
strip. Similar work was carried out by Aretz et al [2] for a smaller
workpiece at lower temperature of 420 °C. The maximum stress
at roll bite calculated by them was 83.67 MPa. Higher stress
reported by them may be attributed to the lower temperature dur-
ing deformation.
On comparing Fig. 3 and Fig. 5 it is found that maximum stress
at roll bite is 68.8 MPa for Nb-microalloyed steel whereas it is
60.5 MPa for AISI steel. So, the peak stress is about 12% more in
case of Nb-microalloyed steel in comparison to AISI 1015 grade
steel at the same temperature and coefficient of friction.
The roll force calculated by DEFORM-3D using the stress distri-
bution during hot rolling of Nb-microalloyed steel at 1203 °C and
the coefficient of friction of 0.8 is shown in Fig. 7. The roll force
A. Kumar, S. Rath and M. Kumar
Fig. 7. Roll force during hot rolling of Nb-microalloyed steel at temperature of 1203 oC and coefficient of friction of 0.8.
Fig. 8. Roll Force during hot rolling of AISI 1015 grade steel at temperature 1203 °C and Coefficient of Friction 0.8.
varies between 11 and 15 MN. The average roll force is about 12.5
MN.
The roll force plot of AISI 1015 grade of steel is shown in Fig. 8.
The roll force varies between 7.5 and 10.5 MN. The average force is
about 9.5 MN. The roll force is about 31.5% more in case of Nb-
microalloyed steel in comparison to AISI 1015 grade of steel.
Fig. 9 shows the distribution of roll force during hot rolling of
the entire slab for AISI 1015 and Nb-microalloyed steel. It is found
that the variation of roll force is higher in case of Nb-microalloyed
steel compared to AISI 1015 grade. The time of rolling of AISI 1015
grade of steel is slightly lesser than that of Nb-microalloyed steel. It
is found that the high fluctuation of roll force is due to the multi-
peak flow stress variation of Nb-microalloyed steel. So, that it
can be predicted that there will be higher fluctuation of load during
hot rolling of Nb-microalloyed steel leading to higher thickness
variation of rolled products.
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Materials Today: Proceedings 42 (2021) 650–659
A comparative study of AISI 1015 with Nb-microalloyed steel
was conducted at different coefficients of friction as shown in
Fig. 10. The average values of roll force have an increasing trend
with the increase in the coefficient of friction. The roll force doesn’t
change much when the coefficient of friction is between 0.45 and
0.55. But the force increases about 27.2% in case of Nb-
microalloyed steel but around 12% in the case of AISI 1015 grade
of steel with an increase in the coefficient of friction from 0.5 to
0.65.
4.3. Effect of temperature on stress during hot rolling of Nb-
microalloyed steel
The stress distribution at roll bite for Nb-microalloyed steel at
the temperature of 1150 °C is shown in Fig. 11. The corresponding
stress distribution for the Nb-microalloyed steel at 1250 °C is
A. Kumar, S. Rath and M. Kumar Materials Today: Proceedings 42 (2021) 650–659

Fig. 9. Comparison of Roll Force during hot rolling of AISI 1015 and Nb-Microalloyed grades of Steel.

Fig. 10. Comparison of average roll force during hot rolling of AISI 1015 and Nb-microalloyed steel at different coefficient of friction.

shown in Fig. 12. The peak stress at roll bite for the former condi-
tion is found to be 78.1 MPa whereas it is 61.8 MPa for the temper-
ature at 1250 °C. This is due to the decrease in flow stress of Nb-
microalloyed steel at the higher temperature. There is a decrease
in peak stress of about 0.163 MPa/oC of deformation temperature.
The stress distribution is similar for both cases.
4.4. Effect of coefficient of friction on stress during hot rolling of Nb-
microalloyed steel
variation of peak stress where the coefficient of friction is
increased from 0.45 to 0.8. However, there is a significant variation
of nature of stress distribution.
In case of a lower coefficient of friction, the stress distribution is
observed to be uniform from the contact surface to the core of the
slab across the slab thickness. This is due to the insignificant con-
tribution of the frictional component of stress compared to a highly
insignificant contribution of frictional stress in case of high coeffi-
cient of friction.

Stress distribution at roll bite for the coefficient of friction of
0.45 at 1203 °C is shown in Fig. 13. The corresponding stress distri-
bution at the coefficient of friction of 0.8 is given earlier. The peak
stress in the former case is found to be 69.7 MPa whereas it is
68.8 MPa in the later case. It is found that there is no significant
656
4.5. Effect of temperature on roll force during hot rolling of Nb-
microalloyed steel
A Study has been conducted to investigate the effect of defor-
mation temperature on average roll force. The result is given in
A. Kumar, S. Rath and M. Kumar Materials Today: Proceedings 42 (2021) 650–659

Fig. 11. Stress Distribution at Roll bite during hot rolling of Nb-Microalloyed steel at temperature 1150 °C and Coefficient of Friction 0.8.

Fig. 12. Stress Distribution at Roll bite during hot rolling of Nb-Microalloyed steel at temperature 1250 °C and Coefficient of Friction 0.8.

Table 5. The average roll force was found to be 14.39 MN at 1150 °C
which decreases to 11.35 MN at a temperature of 1250 °C. There is
a decrease in average roll force of about 0.03 MN/oC of deformation
temperature under the given rolling condition.
4.6. Effect of coefficient of friction on roll force during hot rolling of Nb-
microalloyed steel
The variation of average roll force at different coefficients of
friction is given in Table 6. It is found that there is a minor decrease
of roll force as the coefficient of friction increases from 0.45 to 0.5
but after that, there is a consistence in increase in roll force due to
higher frictional components. The initial decrease may be con-
657
tributed to the cancellation of opposite frictional stress
components.
The variation of roll force at different coefficients of friction is
shown in Fig. 14. It is found that the rolling is smooth and fast
when the coefficient of friction is 0.6–0.65. So, the ideal rolling
can be done in the friction in case of the coefficient of friction is
0.6–0.65.
4.7. Validation of roll force predicted by simulation with measured roll
force
The roll force predicted by the simulation for different passes of
plate rolling is compared with measured roll force recorded from
load cells of an industrial plate mill. Table 7 shows that entry
A. Kumar, S. Rath and M. Kumar Materials Today: Proceedings 42 (2021) 650–659

Fig. 13. Stress Distribution at Roll bite during hot rolling of Nb-Microalloyed steel at temperature 1203 °C and Coefficient of Friction 0.45.

Table 5
Average roll force at different temperature for Nb-Microalloyed Steel.

Sl No Entry Thickness (mm) Exit Thickness (mm) Coefficient of friction Deformation Temperature (oC) Average Roll Force (MN)
1 220 198.05 0.8 1150 14.39
2 220 198.05 0.8 1175 13.24
3 220 198.05 0.8 1203 12.39
4 220 198.05 0.8 1225 12.19
5 220 198.05 0.8 1250 11.35

Table 6
Variation of Roll Force with coefficient of friction.

Sl No Entry Thickness (mm) Exit Thickness (mm) Coefficient of friction Deformation Temperature (oC) Average Roll Force (MN)
1 220 198.05 0.45 1203 11.03
2 220 198.05 0.5 1203 10.31
3 220 198.05 0.55 1203 10.99
4 220 198.05 0.6 1203 11.91
5 220 198.05 0.65 1203 12.16

thickness, exit thickness, plate width and temperature are the
input variables to the simulation for 14 nos of passes. Simulation
Fig. 14. Roll force at different coefficient of friction during hot rolling of Nb-
microalloyed Steel at deformation temperature of 1203 °C.
for these 14 nos of passes was carried out in DEFORM-3D software
and the roll force predicted from the simulation for each pass is
given in the table. The roll force for each of these passes was
recorded from the load cell outputs. The load cell outputs are
shown as measured roll force in the table. The model prediction
error is calculated and it is found to be in the range of 9.01 to
+ 8.21%. The model prediction of roll force is close to measured roll
force with root mean square error (RMSE) for these 14 passes is
calculated as 2.39 MN for these 14 passes of plate rolling. Zhang
et al[16] had developed an analytical solution of rolling force using
the variational method. The maximum error of prediction by that
method was 8.6%. As per the authors, with this level of accuracy,
the model may be considered as highly accurate. So, the prediction
accuracy by DEFORM-3D model in the present study is comparable
to that presented in the paper of Zhang et al., the model may be
considered as highly accurate for industrial data.
The value of the coefficient of determination (r-squared)
between the predicted and measured roll force data is calculated
as 0.966. Dyja et al.[11] had used ELRoll code for prediction of roll
force during different passes of a plate rolling mill at Poland. Using

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A. Kumar, S. Rath and M. Kumar Materials Today: Proceedings 42 (2021) 650–659

Table 7
Comparison of roll force predicted by simulation with recorded roll force.

PassNo Entry Thickness Exit Thickness Width Temperature Measured Roll Force Predicted Roll Force Prediction Error
(mm) (mm) (mm) (oC) (MN) (MN) (%)
1 250.00 221.09 1894 1140 19.417 18.591 4.25
2 221.09 198.62 3670 1134 32.383 31.163 3.77
3 198.62 177.26 3672 1130 32.207 31.594 1.90
4 177.26 156.80 3674 1128 31.61 32.36 2.37
5 156.80 130.55 2667 1118 29.762 29.978 0.73
6 130.55 106.35 2671 1114 31.968 30.59 4.31
7 106.35 84.93 2675 1110 31.623 31.205 1.32
8 84.93 66.59 2679 1105 32.965 31.87 3.32
9 66.59 54.54 2682 1096 27.338 27.794 1.67
10 54.54 40.75 2679 942 51.588 56.238 9.01
11 40.75 30.32 2682 933 60.384 55.424 8.21
12 30.32 22.72 2685 919 56.958 54.437 4.43
13 22.72 18.29 2686 895 50.706 47.08 7.15
14 18.29 16.22 2684 859 38.158 35.401 7.23

their data, the r-squared value between predicted and measured
roll force is calculated as 0.963. It indicates that the roll force pre-
dicted by DEFORM-3D under the present work agrees well with
measured data of roll force for industrial plate rolling mills.
5. Conclusions
1. The roll bite stress distribution for plate rolling process can be
calculated using FEM based software DEFORM-3D. Prior to sim-
ulation, the coefficients and exponents of constitutive flow
stress equation must be determined.
2. Multivariable optimization technique has been successfully
used under this work to determine coefficients and exponents
of constitutive flow stress equation from experimental data.
3. The operating range of the coefficient of friction can also be
determined from the simulation study.
4. It is found that the peak stress at roll bite for microalloyed steel
is 13–25% higher than the peak stress at roll bite for plain car-
bon steel.
5. The roll force predicted by the DEFORM-3D based FEM model is
in good agreement with measured values.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Alok Kumar: Software, Writing - original draft. Sushant Rath:
Conceptualization, Methodology. Manoj Kumar: Supervision.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
References
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model for the FEM simulation of cross wedge rolling, J Mater. Process. Technol.
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