FEM simulation on width spread during the multi-pass and reversing process of roughing horizontal rolling for hot strip mills

A three-dimensional elastic-plastic finite element model (FEM) of horizontal rolling integration was established with ANSYS/LS-DYNA analysis software. The process of muhi-pass and continuous reversing horizontal rolling was simulated by a small-scale restart method. The changes in width spread of equal-thickness intermediate slabs while adopting different rolling schedules and of different thickness intermediate slabs while rolling various strip specifications were analyzed by the model. Simulation results of different rolling pass-schedules showed that rolling schedules affected the width spread of intermediate slabs slightly, but they may consume different energies, leading to different rolling forces and force moments. The small-scale restart method not only can keep rolling processes continuous, but also ean avoid the complexity of repeated modeling by a model updating method.