Special Issue Article

Advances in Mechanical Engineering

1–7
Ó The Author(s) 2015
The effect of roll with passive segment DOI: 10.1177/1687814015571013
aime.sagepub.com
on the planetary rolling process

Qing-Ling Zeng, Yong Zang and Qin Qin

Abstract
In three-roll planetary rolling process, there is secondary torsion phenomenon that may lead to rolling instability. This
article proposed a new idea to alleviate the secondary torsion phenomenon by dividing the secondary torsion segment
out of the roll as an independent and passive one. To study the performance of the roll with passive segment, the three-
dimensional finite element models of planetary rolling process using actual roll or new roll with passive segment involving
elastic–plastic and thermal–mechanical coupling were established by the software ABAQUS/Explicit, and a series of anal-
ysis had been done successfully. The rolling temperature and rolling force of planetary mill were in good agreement with
the measured results, which indicated that the finite element method would supply important reference merit for three-
dimensional thermo-mechanical simulation of the three-roll planetary rolling process. Comparing the simulation results
of the two models, the results indicated that the change in the roll structure had just a little influence on the metal defor-
mation, temperature, and rolling force, but it lessened the secondary torsion deformation effectively and improved the
outside roundness of the rolled tube slightly. The research provided a new idea for the roll design of three-roll planetary
mill (PSW).

Keywords
Copper tube, planetary rolling, finite element analysis, secondary torsion, passive segment

Date received: 12 September 2014; accepted: 24 December 2014

Academic Editor: Libardo Vicente Vanegas Useche

Introduction the rolling forces. Al-Salmi and Hartley3 analyzed the

Since the three-roll planetary rolling technology was
first applied to the cogging process of copper by
Outokumpu Company of Finland in the early 1990s, it
has been improved gradually and widely used in copper
tube processing industry.1 However, the three-roll pla-
netary rolling process is a complex non-closed volume
deformation process under local cyclic load, and many
researches have to be conducted to explore its rolling
mechanism.
Considering the multiple nonlinear factors involved,
such as material, geometry, contact, and temperature
field, most of the studies on three-roll planetary rolling
process have been carried out with numerical method.
Hwang et al.2 combined experimental and numerical
analyses to study the spiral marks of rolled piece and
three-roll rotary rolling process for producing bimetal-
lic rod using finite element method (FEM) and dis-
cussed the rolling pressure and rolling force. Binotsch
et al.4 used the FEM to achieve a deeper process under-
standing of planetary rolling. Xin-wang et al.5 analyzed
the model of simulation on rolling process of titanium
alloy bar. Bing et al.6 studied the deformation rules of
three-roll planetary rolling process and simulated the
School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Science and Technology
Beijing, Beijing, China
Corresponding author:
Yong Zang, School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Science and
Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China.
Email: yzang@ustb.edu.cn

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openaccess.htm).
2 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
temperature field in planetary rolling process;7 besides,
experiments were used to research microstructure and
properties of copper tube in three-roll planetary roll-
ing.8 Luo et al.9 found that friction and surface played
an important role in three-roll rolling process. Peng-yue
et al.10 established a three-dimensional (3D) FE model
of rolling bar by using software DEFORM 3D and
analyzed the rolling force and rolling temperature.
Limin11 focused on the roll shape of planetary mill; in
addition, Limin et al.12 discussed the effect of friction
coefficient on the rolling process. In summary, the stud-
ies on rolling technology mainly focused on metal flow,
rolling temperature, and rolling force; just a few stud-
ies’ emphasis was roll shape, roll structure, and their
influence on rolling process.
In order to meet the needs of the deformation of
workpiece and rolling temperature, the roll is divided
into five zones in the actual planetary mill, as shown in
Figure 1. The secondary torsion of the workpiece will
appear in the concentrating deformation zone.
Preliminary studies have indicated that the torsion of
tube billet may lead to rolling instability. Hence, new
methods have to be suggested to reduce the torsion
during the rolling process. It is proposed to divide the
roll into several zones and make several of them to pas-
sive rotation structures. There are three schemes,
namely, the concentrating deformation segment is
designed as passive one, the roll under the concentrat-
ing deformation segment is designed as passive one,
and the concentrating deformation segment and the
roll segment under the concentrating deformation seg-
ment are designed as passive segments, respectively.
Based on the 3D thermal–mechanical coupling simula-
tion with the FE software ABAQUS, this article mainly
focuses on the influence of the change in the roll struc-
ture on planetary rolling process, when the segment of
the concentrating deformation zone is designed to pas-
sive one.
FE model of actual three-roll planetary
mill and verification
Model of three-roll planetary mill
The motion of three-roll planetary mill mainly contains
three conical rollers’ rotation around its own axis and
their revolution around the rolling line, the rotation of
tube billet, and the axial movement of the back push.
The three-roll planetary rolling process in actual mill is
very complicated. So, it is reasonable to simplify the
simulation model. The orbital revolution of the rollers
is ignored. The shape curve of the rollers, the freedom
of the mandrel, and the shape of back push are simpli-
fied. Thus, the simplified FE model of three-roll plane-
tary rolling process will be established, as shown in
Figure 2. The process parameters of three-roll
Figure 1. The roller shape with five zones.
Table 1. Parameters of the rolling process
Inclined Offset Roll rotational Pusher
angle a ( °) angle b ( °) speed (rad/s) speed (mm/s)
50 7.8 21 16
planetary rolling are the data from field measurement,
as shown in Table 1.
In the three-roll planetary rolling process, the reduc-
tion rate reaches 96% rolling, and rolling temperature
will increase from room temperature to the metal
recrystallization temperature, and therefore, thermal
effects must be included during rolling process.
Thermal boundary conditions mainly contain the con-
tact heat conduction between tube and rollers, mandrel,
back push, thermal convection, and thermal radiation
between the tube and the outside environment. In the
FE analysis, the initial temperature of the tube, rollers,
mandrel, and back push is taken at room temperature
25 °C, contact thermal conductivity is taken at 20 kW/
(m2 °C), the equivalent heat transfer coefficient of ther-
mal convection and radiation is taken at 0.9 kW/
(m °C), and conversion factor of thermal power reaches
0.95. Meanwhile, in order to improve accuracy and
achieve a complete simulation of the rolling process,
the arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) method of
ABAQUS/Explicit is used to solve mesh distortion
problems during simulation.
Comparison of the FE simulation with the measured
results
To verify the reliability of the FE results, the rolling
force and temperature of the copper tubes in three-roll
planetary rolling process have been measured by the
experiments. The rolling force and rolling temperature
cannot be tested directly because of the restrictions of
the structure of mill and production site. The head
deformation of the support ring was obtained by full-
Zeng et al. 3

Table 2. Rolling force and rolling temperature in the planetary rolling temperature between FE result and measured
rolling process. result is 2.14%. The measured results verified the FE
simulation results, which indicate the accuracy of the
FE results Measured Relative
thermo-mechanical coupling simulation analysis. So
results error
the FE simulation could be used in follow-up study.
Rolling force (kN) 600 550 9.09%
Rolling temperature ( °C) 685 700 2.14%
FE model of the rolling process with new
FE: finite element.
roll
Principal theory
Based on the research of metal motion trajectory in
Back push three-roll planetary rolling process, as shown in Figure
3, one point on the tube billet in the rolling deforma-
tion zone has not only an angular velocity around the
rolling line but also a forward speed along the rolling
line direction. Tangential sliding between rolled piece
Mandrel
Tube billet and roll in the rolling process varies at different posi-
tions of the deformation zone, which causes the torsion
of tube billet. According to the space geometric relation
between roll and rolled piece,9 the relationship between
Roll the tube speed and the roll speed is obtained.
The axial velocity of the rolled piece is
Figure 2. The model of the planetary rolling. Vxi = Ri vhxi sin ui ð1Þ

The tangential velocity of rolled piece is

Vri = Ri vhti cos ui ð2Þ

The angular velocity of rolled piece is

Vri
vi = ð3Þ
rpi

Figure 3. The motion trajectory of the point in the tube.
bridge strain gauge measuring method in order to mea-
sure the rolling force. In order to obtain the rolling
temperature of planetary rolling process, the tempera-
ture of mandrel after rolling was measured. Simple
treatment for the data of mandrel temperature and the
rolling temperature could be obtained. The measured
results and FE results are presented in Table 2.
As can be seen in Table 2, the rolling temperature in
three-roll planetary rolling is about 700 °C. The relative
error of the rolling force between FE result and mea-
sured result is 9.09%. Besides, the relative error of
where Ri and rpi are the radius of the roll and rolled
piece at i section, respectively; v is the angular velocity
of roll; hxi and hti are the axial sliding coefficient and
tangential sliding coefficient, respectively; ui is the feed
angle, which is the angle of the projection of the roll
axis and the rolling line on the plane that is tangent to
the circle of the tube outside surface through the con-
tact point and parallel to the rolling line.
According to the formulas above, the torsion angu-
lar velocity can be adjusted by changing the roll speed
and the tangential sliding coefficient. Thus, it is possi-
ble to reduce the secondary torsion during rolling pro-
cess by changing the structure or shape of the roll.
Model of three-roll planetary rolling process with
changed roller
Limin et al.12 have proved that the concentrating defor-
mation zone is the place in which the secondary torsion
will appear. So, there is a possibility to reduce the sec-
ondary torsion of tube by changing the roll structure in
the concentrating deformation zone. In this article, the
4 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
Figure 4. The roll with passive segment.
I: bite zone; II: reducing zone; III: concentrating deformation zone; IV:
calibration zone; V: rounding zone.
Figure 5. The model of the planetary rolling.
Figure 6. Angular velocity of the workpiece cross section.
roll segment at the concentrating deformation zone is
changed into passive and driven by the tube, and the
roll structure is shown in Figure 4.
Using the same modeling method as described in sec-
tion ‘FE model of actual three-roll planetary mill and
verification’ and replacing the roll in the former model
with the roll with passive segment, a 3D thermal–
mechanical FE model was established, which includes
the tube billet, improved roll, mandrel, and back push,
as shown in Figure 5.
Results and discussion
Torsion analysis
Figure 6 shows the angular velocity of the workpiece
cross section in the rolling deformation zone before
and after the roll structure being changed, respec-
tively. As shown in Figure 6, the angular velocity of
workpiece in the bite zone (the x-axis coordinate is 0–
67.5 mm) keeps approximately invariant, maintaining
at about 58 rad/s before the roll structure is changed.
As the workpiece enters the reducing zone (the x-axis
coordinate is 67.5–78.2 mm), the angular velocity
decreases gradually to 50 rad/s. However, in the con-
centrating deformation zone (the x-axis coordinate is
78.2–85 mm), the angular velocity decreases intensely,
and there is a minimum of 35 rad/s. In the calibration
zone (the x-axis coordinate is 85–132.5 mm), there is a
speed-up process. And finally into the rounding zone,
the angular velocity roughly stabilizes at 39 rad/s. In
the concentrating deformation zone and the calibra-
tion zone, the angular velocity decreases rapidly and
then increases slightly. There are two torsions in this
process, and the segment in the concentrating defor-
mation zone is twisted most seriously during the
whole rolling process. The angular velocity of work-
piece reduces to a smaller value of about 43.5 rad/s in
the reducing zone, after the roll structure is changed
and the roll segment in the concentrating deformation
zone becomes passive one. Although it still decreases
in the concentrating deformation zone, its minimum
is at a larger value, about 41.5 rad/s. In the calibra-
tion zone, the angular velocity continues to decrease
slowly. As the workpiece enters into the rounding
zone, its angular velocity also stabilizes at 39 rad/s
roughly.
To describe the torsion in rolling process more
clearly, the change rate of angular velocity along the
rolling line is further calculated, as shown in Figure 7.
The change rate of angular velocity reaches a minimum
of 21.7 in the concentrating deformation zone with the
unchanged roll structure, while it reaches a minimum
of 21.26 in the reducing zone with the changed roll
structure. In summary, it can be known that the most
seriously torsion section appears in the concentrating
zone when the roll structure is unchanged. After the
roll structure is changed, the most serious torsion sec-
tion moves to the reducing zone, and the torsion degree
decreases obviously; that is, the roll structure with the
passive concentrating deformation zone is helpful to
alleviate the secondary torsion phenomenon during
rolling process.
Zeng et al.
Figure 7. The rate of angular velocity.
Cross section deformation analysis of workpiece
In order to study the influence of the roll structure
change on the deformation of cross section, eight cross
sections along the rolling direction are shown in Figure
8. Through the results of FE simulation, it can be
observed that the shape of cross section will be a circle,
then a circular arc triangle, and finally a circle again
when it is thrown out by the rolls, no matter whether
the roll structure is changed or not. Sections 4 and 5 in
Figure 8 are the most serious area of the triangle effect.
It proves that it is hard to observe the influence of the
change in the roll structure on the triangle effect of
workpiece section.
To study the triangle effect quantitatively, the ratio a
of the cross section is defined as a token. Here
rmax  rmin
a=
rm
Figure 8. Deformation process of the workpiece cross section: (a) before roll structure changed and (b) after roll structure
changed.
5
where rmax , rmin , and rm are the maximum, the mini-
mum, and the average radius of the section,
respectively.
To quantify the triangle effect, the ratio a of sections
2 to 7 in Figure 8 are used to measure the triangle effect,
as can be seen in Table 3. For the six cross sections, the
value of the roll before the change is greater than the
value with the changed roll structure, especially for sec-
tions 4 and 5 (i.e. concentrating deformation zone and
calibration zone). The relative error of ratio a in sec-
tions 4 and 5 reaches 16.099% and 18.625%, respec-
tively. Therefore, the roll with a passive segment in the
concentrating deformation zone improves triangle
effect. The small gradient of the angular velocity in con-
centrating deformation zone and higher minimum
angular velocity make the circumferential deformation
more homogeneous.
Temperature field
Figure 9 shows the temperature field contours in the
rolling process with two different roll structures. Figure
10 shows the temperature distribution in the deforma-
tion region.
It can be seen from Figure 9 that the rolling tempera-
ture rises gradually as the wall reduction increases, until
it reaches the highest in the rounding zone. Thereafter,
the temperature begins to decline due to the cooling of
the outside environment. Similarly, the temperature of
the deformation zone along the rolling direction gradu-
ally increases at first and then slowly decreases as
shown in Figure 10. The highest temperature is 675 °C
in the rounding zone when the roll structure is changed,
while it was 685 °C previously. The change in the tem-
perature is the result of power consumption decrease as
ð4Þ
the concentrating deformation segment is changed into
6 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Table 3. The triangle effect coefficient a of the workpiece cross section.

With unchanged roller With changed roller Relative error of ratio a (%)

Section 2 0.0673 0.0689 0.5944

Section 3 0.1423 0.1378 3.1623
Section 4 0.6081 0.5102 16.099
Section 5 0.7377 0.6103 18.625
Section 6 0.6202 0.6018 2.9668
Section 7 0.5696 0.5484 3.7219

Figure 9. The temperature distribution of rolled piece: (a) before roll structure changed and (b) after roll structure changed.

Figure 11. The rolling force of pinch roll.

Figure 10. The temperature along rolling line.

passive. In a word, the change in the roll structure influ-
ences the temperature of the deformation zone slightly.
Rolling force
As shown in Figure 11, the rolling force varies during
the rolling time. After biting, the rolling force rises gra-
dually with the increase in the contact area between the
roll and the workpiece. Thereafter, the rolling force
reduces slightly due to the rise in temperature. And
then, the rolling force would keep basically steady.
During three-roll planetary rolling process, the rolling
force fluctuates as the cross section of tube billet in the
deformation zone turns from circle to circular arc trian-
gle and then to circle again.
The different roll structure causes the change in con-
tact pressure. So, the rolling force during the steady roll-
ing process with two different roll structures is also not
equal. The rolling force reduces from 600 to 590 kN, as
the concentrating deformation zone becomes passive one.
Zeng et al. 7

Table 4. Radius in the finished product surface. while improved the roundness of the rolled tube
slightly. Therefore, the idea of reducing rolling
With unchanged With changed torsion by using the new structure roll is
roller roller
feasible.
Radius (mm) 25.1905 24.8508
25.5937 24.9184
24.9700 24.8769 Declaration of conflicting interests
25.3106 24.8883 The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests
25.4127 25.1192 regarding the publication of this article.
25.1207 25.3793
23.9697 25.5784
24.3425 25.8029 Funding
24.6022 26.0050
24.5816 26.1196 The research received support from the Provincial and
Average value 24.90942 25.35388 Ministerial Research Cooperation Projects of Guangdong
Standard deviation 0.51813 0.49498 Province (2010B091000003).

Roundness of the outer surface of rolled product
In order to research the influence of the roll structure
on the quality of the rolled product, one section is cut
out, respectively, from finished tube rolled by two kinds
of rolls. The 10 points that are uniformly distributed on
a section of the exterior surface and the roundness error
of every point are picked up through reading its radius
value. The results are shown in Table 4. It can be seen
that the standard deviation of the radius of the finished
tube rolled by the modified roll is much less, that is, the
roundness of the finished product rolled by the modi-
fied roll is better.
Conclusion
1. The simulation analysis of planetary rolling
process showed that the concentrating deforma-
tion zone was the reason for secondary torsion,
which had adverse influence on the rolling pro-
cess. To alleviate the secondary torsion phe-
nomenon, the concentrating deformation zone
was divided from the roll as a separated passive
rotation segment.
2. The influence of the modification of the roll
structure was analyzed with an FE model
involving thermo-mechanical nonlinear beha-
viors. The rate of angular velocity changed from
a minimum of 21.7 to 21.26 after the roll
structure was changed. The results suggested
that the change in the roll structure effectively
reduced the secondary torsion and made the
rolling process smoother.
3. The new roll structure just caused temperature
drop with 10 °C and the change in the rolling
force with 10 kN. The modification of the roll
structure had just a little influence on the metal
deformation, temperature, and rolling force,
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