Simulation of Snaking and Buckling in Hot Sheet Rolling

Abstract

In hot sheet rolling, the sheet end often snakes, contacts the side guide, buckles, and goes into the roll gap, while the overlapped sheet end is squeezed. Although many simulations on sheet snaking are reported, very few researches have been performed to simulate both the sheet snaking and sheet buckling. In this study, we proposed a combined method to simultaneously simulate the sheet snaking through the rigid-plastic FEM and to analyze the sheet buckling by the elementary theory of buckling. The in-plane lateral load and the in-plane bending moment were assumed at the surface of the region for the simulation by the rigid-plastic FEM. The amount of snaking at the sheet end simulated by the rigid-plastic FEM agreed with that calculated from the analysis by the elementary theory. Finally, we clarified the effects of rolling conditions on the occurrence of squeezing, such as the difference in the sheet thickness in the roll axis direction, the difference in the roll gap in the roll axis direction, and the amount of the off-center.