A thermal analysis of strip-rolling in mixed-film lubrication with O/W emulsions

Increase of both roll and strip surface temperatures can significantly affect a rolling process, roll conditions and strip mechanical properties. A comprehensive thermal analysis in cold rolling, especially in a mixed film regime, is needed to understand how thermal fields develop in roll and strip during rolling. It requires a simultaneous solution of the mixed film model for friction in the roll bite and the thermal model for roll and strip thermal fields. This paper presents a numerical procedure to analyse strip rolling process using lubrication with oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions. The thermal model includes the effect of heat generation due to the strip deformation and frictional shear stress at the asperity contacts. The numerical analysis employs a coupled thermal model and a mixed film lubrication model for calculating the friction and the asperity deformation in the bite. The thermal model considers the initial temperatures of the roll and strip, temperature rise due to the strip plastic deformation and friction. While the O/W mixed-film lubrication model takes into account the effect of surface roughness and oil concentration (%vol) of the emulsion. The thermal effect is analysed in terms of strip surface temperature and roll temperature, which are influenced by rolling parameters such as reduction, rolling speed, oil concentration in the emulsion. The results of the parametric study indicate that the effect of oil concentration on the thermal field is relatively small compared to that of reduction ratio and rolling speed. The reduction ratio increases the maximum interface temperature in the roll bite. In the mixed film regime, rolling speed also increases the maximum interface temperature and alters the temperature field of the strip. The numerical procedure was validated against known experimental data and can readily be extended to hot rolling or used to analyse roll strip temperature subjected to different cooling system.