Thermal-mechanical finite element simulation of flat bar rolling coupled with a stochastic model of microstructure evolution

Abstract

It is generally recognized that the kinetics of phase transformations during the cooling of steel products depends to a large extent on the state of the austenite after rolling. Austenite deformation (when recrystallization is not complete) and grain size have a strong influence on the nucleation and growth of low-temperature phases. Thus, the general objective of the present work was the formulation of a numerical model which simulates thermal, mechanical and microstructural phenomena during multipass hot rolling of flat bars. The simulation of flat bar rolling accounting for the evolution of a heterogeneous microstructure was the objective of the work. A conventional finite-element program was used to calculate the distribution of strains, stresses, and temperatures in the flat bar during rolling and during interpass times. The FE program was coupled with the stochastic model describing austenite microstructure evolution. In this model, the random character of the recrystallization was accounted for. Simulations supplied information about the distributions of the dislocation density and the grain size at various locations through the thickness of the bars.