Process Design by FEM Simulation for Shape Ring Rolling

of Large-Sized Ring
Y.S. Leea , M.W. Leea , S.S. Parkb , I. Leeb and Y.H. Moonc
a
Materials Deformation Group, Korea Institute of Materials Science
531 Changwondaero, Changwon, Gyeongsangnam 641-831, Korea
e-mail: lys1668@kims.re.kr, Web page: www.kims.re.kr
b
Forging Production Division, Unison Co., Ltd.
1984, Chojeon-Ri, Sanam-Myeon, Sacheon-Si, Gyeongsangnam-Do, Korea
e-mail:parkss@unison.co.kr, Web page www.unison.co.kr
c
Engineering Research Center for Net Shape and Die Manufacturing
Pusan National University
30 Jangeon-dong, Geumjeong-gu, Busan 609-735, Korea
e-mail: yhmoon@pusan.ac.kr, Web page: www.pusan.ac.kr

Abstract. Ring rolling process is usually used to fabricate large-sized ring, such as, tower flange for wind power electric
generator. Many kinds of seamless ring are used in wind power electric generator and manufactured by ring rolling
process. In general, final part is machined after forming with shape of plain square section. Since interests for near net
shaping of seamless ring have been increased gradually because of green energy, it is necessary to develop the technology
for shape ring rolling with respect to the market demands and cost. Therefore, we studied the process and die design for
shape ring rolling of large sized ring over 3,500mm out diameter by experiment and FEM simulation. Ring rolling
process is very difficult to solve by FEM method because of equilibrium state and size effect, etc. Moreover, shape ring
rolling is more difficult to solve the problem that two plastic deformation zones are different each other, that is main roll
and conical roll. Also since conical roll has a shape, deformation velocity field is very much complex and the deformed
section passed axial roll is different section and velocity field. The FE simulations are performed to analyze process
variables affected in forming of profiled ring. Therefore, the main features of used FE model are: (1) it adopts a transient
or unsteady state full ring mesh to model the deformation processes and shape development; (2) the mandrel and conical
rolls are modeled using coupled heat-transfer elements; (3) the model involves the full process from blank through
perform to final profiled ring. From these calculated results, we have proposed the mechanisms of various tools, such as
mandrel and conical roll. The calculated results are compared experimental results. Calculated results can predict the
tilting of profiled ring and then process variables to form large sized ring.

Keywords: Shape Ring Rolling, Large-sized Ring, FEM analysis, Process design, Near-Neat shaping

99.10.-00
PACS: Replace this text with PACS numbers; choose from this list: http://www.aip.org/pacs/index.html

INTRODUCTION
The ring rolling process is thought to have been first developed in the U.K. in the mid-19th century [1] and is still
widely used as the preferred method of forming seamless rings for many aerospace and automotive applications, as
well as for producing railway wheels and tyres [2]. Beside the railway wheels, the technique was used to produce the
seamless rings such as bearing ring, gear ring, aircraft turbine ring, press vessel ring, weld-neck flange ring, etc. In
general, the sizes of these parts are relatively smaller than components for various plants, for example tower flanges
and bearing rings for wind power electric generator. The capacity of wind power electric generator has been larger
and larger and the usage of the wind power electric generator has been grown up. Therefore, the size of both the
tower and the flange also become larger. It is necessary to manufacture the large-sized ring efficiently more and
more. Net shaping of profiled ring is one of the efficient methods to fabricate large sized ring economically. The
economic effects by net shaping of large sized ring are very much enormous due to better material utilization and
shorter cycle time of additional machining. However, shape ring rolling is very difficult forming process, especially
for large sized ring. Until now, shape ring rolling has been used for just small sized ring by the profiled mandrel. In
the case of shape ring rolling using the mandrel, it is very difficult to fabricate the large sized ring since mandrels
need to be changed during the process. Moreover, net shaping of flange type ring of non-symmetric section is much
more difficult due to the tilting of ring, generated because of different deformation velocities at a section and
different sectional area at each position of ring. So, process design by numerical analysis is very efficient to reduce
the trial-and-errors on practical experiment. However, ring rolling finite element simulation for profiled rings is
currently not realistic due to many computational problems. The main reason for this is that a large number of
incremental stages are typically required for completion of a full simulation and the computational cost per
increment is high. The nature of ring rolling means that the amount of deformation that takes place in a given
increment is relatively small when compared with typical metal forming processes. Small errors generated over each
increment can grow to give highly inaccurate predictions profile rolling, overall dimensional inaccuracy and
inaccurate force and stress level predictions. [3] Therefore, many previous studies were performed to solve the
problems related with numerical analysis. [2-9] K. Davey and M.J. Ward had developed efficient finite element
methods, that is, the combined use of the ALE flow formulation and the SPCGM[2], a non-uniform mesh[3, 4, 6].
J.L. Song et. Al [5] performed FE simulation for the hot ring rolling process based on a coupled two-dimensional
elastic-plastic thermal-mechanical model. And Kim et. al [7] proposed two type of mesh system such as special
mesh system (SMS) and actual mesh system (AMS). SMS is constructed densely in the circumferential direction of
ring workpiece in the deformation region. The shape of the cross section is deformed based on the velocity field
found from the rigid-plastic FEM of SMS. Assuming that velocity field is constant for a given time increment delta t,
AMS deforms and rotates according to the velocity field of SMS. FE simulations also based on dynamic explicit
code were tried to reduce the computation time. [8, 9]
However, real-time FE simulation for shape ring rolling is not practical until now because of many difficulties,
that is, computing time, convergence and etc. Nevertheless, non-steady state FE simulation is necessary to predict
some defects, such as a tilting of profiled ring. Therefore, the whole process of shape ring rolling has been simulated
from blank through square-section-preform into profiled ring by using the commercial rigid-viscoplastic FEM
software, FORGETM. Effects of process variables were investigated practically and predicted the tilting of ring, as
shown in Fig. 1. From the simulation results, movements of mandrel, axial roll and guide roll to prevent the tilting of
profiled ring were calculated. The calculated values were used to compensate the process conditions for
manufacturing the L-shape profiled ring which the out diameter is about 3,500mm.

(a) Distortion of profiled ring (b) final L-section ring

FIGURE 1. Tilted prototype and final L-section profiled ring

 MECHANISMS OF SHAPE RING ROLLING
The ring rolling process not only holds the attributes of the plate rolling, asynchronous rolling and multi-way
rolling, but also relates to the feed movement of the mandrel roll and axial rolls, the rotating movement of the main
roll, the guiding movement of the guide rolls as well as the rotation of the ring itself with the diameter expanding
movement. Movement control for the guide and axial rolls is as follows;
(1) The main roll is the drive roll which rotates;
(2) The mandrel roll (radial stand) advances gradually towards the main roll;
(3) The axial rolls synchronized rotates with rotating of the ring
(4) The upper axial roll advances gradually towards the lower axial roll, the axial stand moves levelly as the
outer diameter of the ring increases; the two guide rolls grip the ring, which play an important role in the
centering, avoiding vibration and ensuring roundness of the ring.
(5) Generally, the rotation velocity of the main roll, the feed velocity of the mandrel and axial rolls are given
beforehand. The guide rolls movement track are controlled by the control equipment using data related
with shape and center of ring measured by laser positioning sensors during the practical process.
(6) However these parameters of the axial rolls movement (the rotation velocity and back off velocity) and the
mandrel movement are unknown and must be controlled by data according to time. Therefore, it is still a
hot issue about how to guarantee the mandrel and axial rolls movement harmoniously with the ring
expanding during the rolling simulation process.

Shape ring rolling has classified them into two large groups according to the section of profiled ring, whether the
section is symmetric or not. When the profiled ring is a symmetric and small size, mandrel makes the square section
into symmetric section, as shown in Fig. 2. However, if the profiled ring is non-symmetric or large size, the type of
mandrel control system can not be used because the rigidity of mandrel is poor or two mandrels (plain and profile
mandrel) need to be exchanged during ring rolling process.

FIGURE 2. Shape ring rolling of symmetric sectional profiled ring by the shaped mandrel

Finally, the other system controlled by the axial roll is better than that of mandrel type in the case of the large
sized non-symmetric profiled ring. The axial roll with mandrel makes blank into perform, which is square sectional
ring and its diameter increase up to designed size. And then the axial roll deforms a preform of square section into
profiled section as well as diameter enlargement. Fig. 3 shows the whole process of profile ring rolling from slab
through pierced blank into final profiled ring. The cut slab is deformed into a pancake by several open die forging
and then fabricated into a pierced blank by upsetting and piercing. Pierced blank become into profiled ring through
preform during profile ring rolling. The geometries, such as diameters and heights, are changed at each step. Radius
of blank, preform and profiled ring are r1, r2 and r3, respectively. Also, the heights are changed from h1 through h2
into h3. The movement control of axial roll is one of the most important things in shape ring rolling of axial roll
control type. Therefore, we studied about effect of movement values of tools by FEM analysis, especially, for the
model with L-shape sectional area.

FIGURE 3. Process diagram of profile ring rolling from slab through pierced blank into final profiled ring

FE-MODELS FOR PREFORM AND PROFILED RING

The profiled ring is a tower flange used in wind power electric generator. The out diameter, inner diameter and
height is 3,500mm, 3,100mm and 140mm, respectively. The material is low carbon steel called as S355NL and the
slab manufactured by continuous casting. The chemical compositions are shown Table 1.
FEM simulation has been performed by commercial software FORGE TM. The rigid-viscoplastic material model
is used to consider the heat transfer between the tools and blank. Table 2 shows process conditions and the material
properties for heat transfer simulation. Flow stress data of S355NL are measured by hot compression test. The
measured data are used in simulation. The one of flow stress data and microstructure of deformed specimen are
shown in Fig. 4. The photo is a microstructure when specimen is compressed about 50% upset ratio at 1,200℃.
For the real-time simulation, it is necessary to shorten the calculation time. ALE method and structured mesh
system are used in FE simulation [11]. A structured mesh is a specific mesh for ring rolling process. Moreover, 8-
node cluster computer is used during the whole ring rolling stages.

Table. 1 Chemical compositions of S355NL

C Si Mn Ni Cr Mo V Cu P, S
Min. 0.85
Max. 0.2 0.55 1.75 0.55 0.35 0.13 0.14 0.6 0.025

Table. 2 Material properties of S355NL

Process conditions Material properties
Material of blank S355NL Thermal conductivity 35.5 W/m℃
Mesh number of ring 7,200 ea Interface heat transfer coefficient with a tool 10,000 W/ ㎡℃
Temperature of blank 1,200℃ Interface heat transfer coefficient with a blank 2,000 W/ ㎡℃
Temperature of die 200℃ Thermal exchange coefficient with air 10 W/ ㎡℃
 The blank is deformed into a preform with larger diameter and lower height by plain ring rolling process. And
then the enlarged plain ring goes on increasing the diameter and its section get into the profiled section at the same
time, as shown in Fig. 3. Therefore, FEM simulation also can be illustrated with two rolling stages. The first stage is
the stage for fabricating a preform. The inner and outer diameter of blank holds on enlarging at first stage, as shown
in Fig. 5. The second stage is shape ring rolling stage in which the preform of plain square section is deformed by
the conical axial roll. The axial roll is a typical shape as shown in Fig. 6. Fig. 6 shows the FE model about the
second stage. The ring of plain section is deformed into the shape of conical roll and enlarged into the required
diameter simultaneously. Major variables related with tool movement are five variables, such as rotation of main roll
and mandrel, feed rate of mandrel(Vxm), downward velocity of upper axial roll(Vza) and backward velocity(Vxa).
Among these variables, feed rate of mandrel, downward velocity of upper axial roll and backward velocity are very
important and investigated in this study.

FIGURE 4. A flow stress data and microstructure of deformed specimen

( testing temp. : 1,200℃, strain rate : 0.8, 8, 40/sec. )

FIGURE 5. FE model and mesh of both blank and preform; from blank to deformed plain ring(preform)
 FIGURE 6. FE model and variables of tools for shape ring rolling

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The most important variables of tools are rotation velocity and feed rate. When the variables are appropriate
deformed ring is tilted or become an ellipsoidal shape, as shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 7. These distorted rings are
generated because of non-homogeneous velocity fields at a section and heterogeneity of inertia moment due to
different sectional area at each section of ring. The tilting of ring can be generated when both downward velocity of
upper axial roll, Vz, and rotational velocity of mandrel also are high. Each velocities at each nodal point are different
one another and the difference of velocities become larger as higher rotational velocity of ring. Fig. 8 shows well the
different velocities at section of ring and each position. The velocity difference between LV-position and HV-
position is up to 150 mm/sec. at a arbitrary step. LV-position means the position with low velocity and HV means
high velocity. Inside velocity of LV-position is about 700mm/sec., on the other hand, outside velocity of HV-
position is up to 850 mm/sec. Since these values are changed according to the tool movements, a distortion of ring
can be eliminated by the appropriate control of tools. Finally, FEM analysis result must be able to gives the
appropriate values of tool movements.

(a) Tilted ring (b) ellipsoidal ring

FIGURE 7. Tilted ring and ellipse ring generated by inappropriate controls of tool movement
 FIGURE 8. Distortion of ring and different velocities at each position section of ring

The values of tool movement to get the good profiled ring are shown in Fig. 9. The movement conditions of tools
are shown in left side of graph during the plain ring rolling, that is rolling process fabricating a preform. And
movement conditions of tools are shown in right side of graph during profile ring rolling process. Negative values of
velocity mean the downward from the origin.
In plain ring rolling process, mandrel moves quickly into the main roll at the beginning and then continuously
with same velocity. Upper axial roll moves downward with low fixed velocity to compress ring deformed at between
mandrel and main roll. Radial movement of upper axial roll, Vxa, increases with a high fixed slope and is about
same value with increasing rate of ring diameter.
In profile ring rolling process, feed rate of mandrel is fixed value and velocities of guide roll also maintain same
value. Also, Radial movement of upper axial roll holds on same velocity. However, downward movement velocity
of upper axial roll, Vza, increases little by little. The downward movement of axial roll is the most important to get
the uniform velocity field and prevent the occurrence of distortion of ring.

FIGURE 9. Conditions of Tool movement for good profiled ring

The various results calculated by FEM simulation are shown in Fig. 10. Applied load is about 120 ~ 150 tonf and
temperature of profiled ring distributes from 1,200℃ to 800℃. Calculated temperature of ring coincides with
experimental measured values but low temperature is little overestimated. The reasons are supposed because of
thermal properties of material. In this study, we can investigate the reasons which distortion of profiled ring is
occurred. And proposed movement values of tools helps to get a good profiled ring. So, we can know the possibility
of practical simulation for profiled ring rolling and go on developing the numerical analysis method to find the
optimum values of variables.

(a) applied load (b) temperature change of ring

(c) effective strain (d) temperature

FIGURE 10. Conditions of Tool movement for good profiled ring

SUMMARY
The non-steady state FEM simulation technique was studied to find some practical values for process variables,
such as the values of tool movements. Conditions of tool movement were proposed and estimated to prevent some
defects, such as a tilting of profiled ring. Especially, the real-time simulation for profiled ring with non-symmetric
section could be evaluated. That is the most important point that a more practical simulation for shape ring rolling
process can be performed by optimum analysis technique using the parametric study

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