Roll force,torque, lever arm coefficient,and strain distribution in edge rolling

Due to the growing importance of width control in strip and plate mills, edge rolling is currently an im-portant process in hot rolling mills. Research in edge rolling has been carried out, and in the present ar-ticle, models for roll force, torque, and lever arm coefficient are derived using the upper bound method. A simple, kinematically admissible deformation zone and velocity field, independent of friction in the roll gap, is proposed, and the energy dissipation rate is derived. The formula for energy dissipation rate has, in practice, no limitation because all edge rolling geometries are safely in the area where the formula is valid. Roll force and torque are derived by means of two independent integrals. Thus, the lever arm coef-ficient is evaluated from the expressions for roll force and torque using conventional rolling theory. Roll-ing trials report good agreement with theory. Measured roll forces are similar to calculated forces. Furthermore, the shape of the dogbone that arises during edge rolling is in fairly good agreement with the calculated dogbone shape. Deviations are due to the deviation from ideally plastic material in the ex-periments. Also, the strain distribution over the dogbone is similar to the proposed deformation zone. Thus, a new formula has been developed to a stage that it can be implemented in width control systems for edge rolling stands in hot strip and plate mills.