Finite element simulation of the steel plates hot rolling process

In this paper we discuss our finite element procedure for simulating the hot rolling of flat steel products. We couple an Eulerian rigid‐viscoplastic model of the steel plates deformation to a Lagrangian elastic model of the rolls deformation. This latter model incorporates the bending deformation of the work rolls supported by the back‐up rolls and the flattening of the contact areas (Hertz problem) via an enhanced beam model. The finite element model is validated comparing its predictions with actual industrial measurements and then it is used to analyse different rolling set‐ups. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.