Thermal Field FEM Simulation in Multi-pass Hot Rolling Process for Aluminum Plate

A two-dimensional FEM model for aluminum plate in hot rolling of 15 passes was set up based on MARC software and the thermal field during hot rolling was researched by numerical simulation. The temperature variation and distribution were analyzed and the precision of calculation results was proved by the contrast of temperature simulation and measured temperature. The results show in rolling process the temperature gradient on surface was the largest. The nearer to the center, the smaller the temperature gradient. With the rolling process going on, the surface temperature decreased and then increased, but the central temperature and the average temperature gradual increased and then decreased. Besides, the temperature gradient was less than 1 ℃ in the end of the 11th pass. Moreover, the effects of heating due to plastic deformation and cooling due to contact thermal conduction on thermal field were obvious compared with the effect of coupled convective and radiative heat transfer. The simulation results were agreed well with the measured results and the average error was only 1.1%.