OptiLam:Design of Optimised Rolling Schedules

Nowadays it is known that the thermomechanical schedules applied during hot rolling of flat products provide the steel with improved mechanical properties.In this work an optimisation tool,OptiLam (OptiLam v.1),based on a predictive software and capable of generating optimised rolling schedules to obtain the desired mechanical properties in the final product is described.OptiLam includes some well-known metallurgical models which predict microstructural evolution during hot rolling and the transformation austenite/ferrite during the cooling.Furthermore,an optimisation algorithm,which is based on the gradient method,has been added,in order to design thermomechanical sequences when a specific final grain size is desired.OptiLam has been used to optimise rolling parameters,such as strain and temperature.Here,some of the results of the software validation performed by means of hot torsion tests are presented,showing also the functionality of the tool.Finally,the application of classical optimisation models,based on the gradient method,to hot rolling operations,is also discussed.