A New Model for the Prediction of Width Spread in Roughing Mills

Abstract

Precision control of the slab width is crucial for product quality and production economy in roughing mill. In this paper, we present a new model for the prediction of the width spread of a slab during rolling in the roughing train of a hot strip mill. The approach is based on the extremum principle for rigid plastic materials, and applicable to horizontal rolling of a slab with either a dog-bone shaped cross section or a rectangular cross section. Also, the upper bound theorem is used for calculating the width spread of a slab. The prediction accuracy of the proposed model is examined through comparison with the predictions from the 3D finite element (FE) process simulations.