Microstructure evolution and strengthening mechanism of high -performance powder metallurgy TA15 titanium alloy by hot rolling

Hot deformation of sintered billets by powder metallurgy(PM)is an effective preparation technique for titanium alloys,which is more significant for high-alloying alloys.In this study,Ti–6.5Al–2Zr–Mo–V(TA15)titanium alloy plates were prepared by cold press-ing sintering combined with high-temperature hot rolling.The microstructure and mechanical properties under different process paramet-ers were investigated.Optical microscope,electron backscatter diffraction,and others were applied to characterize the microstructure evolution and mechanical properties strengthening mechanism.The results showed that the chemical compositions were uniformly dif-fused without segregation during sintering,and the closing of the matrix craters was accelerated by increasing the sintering temperature.The block was hot rolled at 1200℃ with an 80%reduction under only two passes without annealing.The strength and elongation of the plate at 20–25℃ after solution and aging were 1247 MPa and 14.0%,respectively,which were increased by 24.5%and 40.0%,respect-ively,compared with the as-sintered alloy at 1300℃.The microstructure was significantly refined by continuous dynamic recrystalliza-tion,which was completed by the rotation and dislocation absorption of the substructure surrounded by low-angle grain boundaries.After hot rolling combined with heat treatment,the strength and plasticity of PM-TA15 were significantly improved,which resulted from the dense,uniform,and fine recrystallization structure and the synergistic effect of multiple slip systems.

Influence of Production Sequence of Aluminum Alloy Hot Rolling on Strip Surface Quality

With the intensification of market competition in the aluminum alloy strip processing industry,it is dif-ficult to control the mass production of the same specifications,which is bound to affect the hot rolling production.This paper studied the effect of the hot rolling order of aluminum alloy on the surface quality of strip,such as roll printing,color difference,anodic oxidation,etc.,reasonable discharge sequence and corresponding optimization measures were formulated.

Flow characteristics and hot workability of a typical low-alloy high-strength steel during multi-pass deformation

Heavy components of low-alloy high-strength(LAHS) steels are generally formed by multi-pass forging. It is necessary to explore the flow characteristics and hot workability of LAHS steels during the multi-pass forging process, which is beneficial to the formulation of actual processing parameters. In the study, the multi-pass hot compression experiments of a typical LAHS steel are carried out at a wide range of deformation temperatures and strain rates. It is found that the work hardening rate of the experimental material depends on deformation parameters and deformation passes, which is ascribed to the impacts of static and dynamic softening behaviors. A new model is established to describe the flow characteristics at various deformation passes. Compared to the classical Arrhenius model and modified Zerilli and Armstrong model, the newly proposed model shows higher prediction accuracy with a confidence level of 0.98565. Furthermore, the connection between power dissipation efficiency(PDE) and deformation parameters is revealed by analyzing the microstructures. The PDE cannot be utilized to reflect the efficiency of energy dissipation for microstructure evolution during the entire deformation process, but only to assess the efficiency of energy dissipation for microstructure evolution in a specific deformation parameter state.As a result, an integrated processing map is proposed to better study the hot workability of the LAHS steel, which considers the effects of instability factor(IF), PDE, and distribution and size of grains. The optimized processing parameters for the multi-pass deformation process are the deformation parameters of 1223–1318 K and 0.01–0.08 s^(-1). Complete dynamic recrystallization occurs within the optimized processing parameters with an average grain size of 18.36–42.3 μm. This study will guide the optimization of the forging process of heavy components.

Achieving oxidation protection effect for strips hot rolling via Al_(2)O_(3) nanofluid lubrication

It was discovered the application of Al_(2)O_(3) nanofluid as lubricant for steel hot rolling could synchronously achieve oxidation protection of strips surface.The underlying mechanism was investigated through hot rolling tests and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations.The employment of Al_(2)O_(3) nanoparticles contributed to significant enhancement in the lubrication performance of lubricant.The rolled strip exhibited the best surface topography that the roughness reached lowest with the sparsest surface defects.Besides,the oxide scale generated on steel surface was also thinner,and the ratio of Fe_(2)O_(3) among various iron oxides became lower.It was revealed the above oxidation protection effect of Al_(2)O_(3) nanofluid was attributed to the deposition of nanoparticles on metal surface during hot rolling.A protective layer in the thickness of about 193 nm was formed to prevent the direct contact between steel matrix and atmosphere,which was mainly composed of Al_(2)O_(3) and sintered organic molecules.MD simulations confirmed the diffusion of O_(2) and H_(2)O could be blocked by the Al_(2)O_(3) layer through physical absorption and penetration barrier effect.

Dynamic explicit FE modeling of hot ring rolling process

A new FE modeling method of hot ring rolling was presented by solving key technologies such as contact and heat boundary conditions,motion control over guide rolls,and mass scaling.The method has the following features:1)the elastic-plastic dynamic explicit approach instead of the static implicit approach is adopted to solve the process so as to greatly improve computational efficiency without sacrificing computational accuracy;2)the coupled thermal-mechanical effect is considered as opposed to the conventional isothermal assumption,which is more practical;3)in contrast to the simplified 2D or local 3D ring model,the full 3D ring is modeled to simulate the process.Based on the FE modeling method,two cases of hot plain ring rolling are simulated in the FEA software ABAQUS/Explicit.The simulation results are compared with the experimental measurements and the good agreement between them is observed regarding the material flow and the temperature distribution of the ring.

Numerical Simulation of Temperature Field and Thermal Stress Field of Work Roll During Hot Strip Rolling

Based on the thermal conduction equations, the three-dimensional （3D） temperature field of a work roll was investigated using finite element method （FEM）. The variations in the surface temperature of the work roll during hot strip rolling were described, and the thermal stress field of the work roll was also analyzed. The results showed that the highest roll surface temperature is 593 ℃, and the difference between the minimum and maximum values of thermal stress of the work roll surface is 145.7 MPa. Furthermore, the results of this analysis indicate that temperature and thermal stress are useful parameters for the investigation of roll thermal fatigue and also for improving the quality of strip during rolling.

Three-Dimensional Thermo-mechanical Coupled FEM Simulation for Hot Continuous Rolling of Large-Diameter Mandrel Bar

Based on the important boundary conditions of rolling simulation including friction, heat conduction and interactionsof the workpiece and rolls, the hot continuous rolling processes of large-diameter mandrel round bar (200 mm indiameter) in 6VH-stand hot tandem mill are successfully simulated by three-dimensional coupled thermomechanicalelastoplastic finite element method (FEM). The distributions of stress, strain, temperature and the rolling force andtorque for the two-pass and four-pass continuous rolling are calculated respectively. Thus, the two and four-passroll schedules are verified, respectively. The simulation results show that it is safe to produce 200 mm round barby the two-pass (oval pass and round pass) continuous rolling on the existing equipment compared to the four-passcontinuous rolling. There are concave surfaces and increased widths occurring at the end of rolled billet due touneven deformations between the outside and inside of the workpiece as well as the free spreading close to the rollgap of the final pass.

Three-Di mensional Model for Strip Hot Rolling

A three-dimensional model for strip hot rolling was developed, in which the plastic deformation of strip, the thermal crown of rolls, roll deflection and flattening were calculated by rigid-plastic finite element method, finite difference method, influential function method and elastic finite element method respectively. The roll wear was taken into consideration. The model can provide detailed information such as rolling pressure distribution, contact pressure distribution between backup rolls and work rolls, deflection and flattening of work rolls, lateral distribution of strip thickness, and lateral distribution of front and back tensions. The finish rolling on a 1 450 mm hot strip mill was simulated.

Finite Element Simulation of Hot Strip Continuous Rolling Process Coupling Microstructural Evolution

Using the nonlinear rigid-viscoplastic finite element method （FEM）, a finite element simulation of the hot strip continuous rolling process was done, which completely integrates different phenomena such as the metallurgical behavior of the strip and the thermo-mechanics in the strip based on the physical metallurgical microstructural evolution law. By combining with the process parameters of certain 2 050 mm hot strip rolling, an actual roll- ing process of low carbon steel SS400 was simulated using the FEM model. Based on the simulation results, the distributions of the strain field, the temperature field, and the microstructure were presented. Meanwhile, the simulated rolling force, temperature, and microstructure are in good agreement with the measured results.

Backup roll contour in finishing trains of hot rolling based on hybrid genetic algorithm

On the basis of integrating two-dimensional varying thickness finite elementmethod with hybrid genetic algorithm, a precise model was developed to design ideal backup rollcontour (Varying Contact Backup Roll, in short VCR) in finishing rains of hot rolling rapidly andefficaciously. Additionally, a lot of good actual effects of VCR, such as evident improvement ofprofile and flatness of strip, remarkable decrease of roll consume, excellent maneuverability andmaintenance, and so on, were validated by long-term industrial tests in hot rolling strip plant ofWuhan Iron and Steel Group Corporation (WISCO).

MODELING OF FERRITE GRAIN GROWTH OF LOW CARBON STEELS DURING HOT ROLLING

For most commercial steels the prediction of the final properties depends on accurately calculating the room temperature ferrite grain size. A grain growth model is proposed for low carbon steels Q235B during hot rolling. By using this model, the initial ferrite grain size after continuous cooling and ferrite grain growing in coiling procedure can be predicted. In-plant trials were performed in the hot strip mill of Ansteel. The calculated final ferrite grain sizes are in good agreement with the experimental ones. It is helpful both for simulation of microstructure evolution and prediction of mechanical properties.

3D FE Analysis of Thermal Behavior of Billet in Rod and Wire Hot Continuous Rolling Process

An FE model was developed to study thermal behavior during the rod and wire hot continuous rolling process. The FE code MSC. Marc was used in the simulation using implicit static arithmetic. The whole rolling process of 30 passes was separated and simulated with several continuous 3D elastic-plastic FE models. A rigid pushing body and a data transfer technique were introduced into this model. The on-line experiments were conducted on 304 stainless steel and GCr15 steel hot continuous rolling process to prove the results of simulation by implicit static FEM. The results show that the temperature results of finite element simulations are in good agreement with experiments, which indicate that the FE model developed in this study is effective and efficient.

On the texture evolution of Mg-Zn-Ca alloy with different hot rolling paths

In the present study,the texture evolution and mechanical anisotropy in a typical Mg–Zn–Ca alloy through hot cross rolling(CR)and unidirectional rolling(UR)were systematically studied.The results show that the rolling path greatly affects the annealed texture.The UR develops a texture with basal poles mainly distributing along the transverse direction(TD).By contrast,an ellipse-like(0002)texture with basal pole inclining largely away from the normal direction(ND)is developed after hot cross rolling and annealing.Therefore,the CR is an effective method to tailor the texture of the experimental alloy.Unfortunately,this ellipse-like texture could not reserve during the subsequent unidirectional hot rolling and annealing.Both UR and CR plates exhibit a strong planar mechanical anisotropy compared with the traditional unidirectional rolled plate.

Analysis of the thermal profile of work rolls in the hot strip rolling process

A 2-dimension axisymmetric model was developed by the finite-differencemethod, which can be used to predict the transient temperature field and thermal profile of workrolls in the hot strip rolling process. To demonstrate the accuracy and reliability of the solutiondeveloped, the calculation results were compared with the production data of a 1700 mm hot striprolling mill and good agreement was found between them. The effect of strip width and roll shiftingon the thermal expansion of the work rolls was studied. It is found that the strip width has markedeffect on the efficient thermal crown. Initially, when the rolling strip changes from narrow towide, a bigger efficient thermal crown can be quickly achieved; afterwards, when the rolling stripchanges from wide to narrow, not only the influence of uneven wear can be reduced but also theexcessive efficient thermal crown can be avoided. It is also found that the work roll shifting has adeterminate but not obvious effect on the reduction of the efficient thermal crown, and will makethe strip shape unstable without being used properly.

Effect of hot rolling on microstructure and properties of the ZEK100 alloy

Attempts to expand manufacturing capabilities of magnesium-based sheet materials are described.The as-cast ZEK100(Mg-1.2Zn-0.35Zr-0.17Nd,in wt%)magnesium alloy was subjected to hot rolling at temperatures from 350℃to 450℃using the laboratory 50 ton reversible mill with preheated rolls to manufacture the 1.5-1.7 mm thick sheet.The rolling temperature affected the sheet properties and an increase in the rolling temperature from 250 to 450℃caused reduction of tensile strength from 257 to 228 MPa ac-companied by a reduction in tensile yield stress from 237 to 185 MPa.At the same time,the alloy elongation increased from 17 to 21%.For the same rolling temperature range,the compressive strength reduced from 418 to 351 MPa.The post-rolling annealing at 450℃led to reduction of both tensile and compressive properties with the largest changes corresponding to the rolling temperature of 350°C.The correlation between the alloy grain size after rolling and the sheet properties was established where a reduction in grain size was accompanied by an increase of both the tensile/compressive strength and yield stress.Based on Hall-Petch relationship and an average grain size the correlation developed in this study may be used as the prediction model for properties of the hot rolled magnesium sheet.The results are discussed in terms of recent developments in magnesium sheet alloys and the vital role played in this process by rare earth elements.

Adaptive threading strategy based on rolling characteristics analysis in hot strip rolling

In order to improve the threading stability and the head thickness precision in tandem hot rolling process,an adaptive threading strategy was proposed.The proposed strategy was realized by the rolling characteristics analysis,and factors which affect the rolling force and the final thickness were determined and analyzed based on the influence coefficients calculation process.An objective function consisting of the influenced factors was founded,and the disturbance quantity was obtained by minimizing the function with the Nelder-Mead simplex method,and the proposed adaptive threading strategy was realized based on the calculation results.The adaptive threading strategy has been applied to one 7-stand hot tandem mill successfully,actual statistics data show that the predicted rolling force prediction in the range of ±5.0% is improved to 97.8%,the head thickness precision in the range of ±35 μm is improved to 98.5%,and the threading stability and the head thickness precision are enhanced to a high level.

Mechanism of hot-rolling crack formation in lean duplex stainless steel 2101

The thermoplasticity of duplex stainless steel 2205（DSS2205） is better than that of lean duplex steel 2101（LDX2101）, which undergoes severe cracking during hot rolling. The microstructure, microhardness, phase ratio, and recrystallization dependence of the deformation compatibility of LDX2101 and DSS2205 were investigated using optical microscopy（OM）, electron backscatter diffraction（EBSD）, Thermo-Calc software, and transmission electron microscopy（TEM）. The results showed that the phase-ratio transformations of LDX2101 and DSS2205 were almost equal under the condition of increasing solution temperature. Thus, the phase transformation was not the main cause for the hot plasticity difference of these two steels. The grain size of LDX2101 was substantially greater than that of DSS2205, and the microhardness difference of LDX2101 was larger than that of DSS2205. This difference hinders the transfer of strain from ferrite to austenite. In the rolling process, the ferrite grains of LDX2101 underwent continuous softening and were substantially refined. However, although little recrystallization occurred at the boundaries of austenite, serious deformation accumulated in the interior of austenite, leading to a substantial increase in hardness. The main cause of crack formation is the microhardness difference between ferrite and austenite.

Prediction of Rolling Load in Hot Strip Mill byInnovations Feedback Neural Networks

Because the structure of the classical mathematical model of rolling load is simple, even with the self-adapting technology, it is difficult to accommodate the increasing dimensional accuracy. Motivated by this fact, an Innovations Feedback Neural Networks （IFNN） was presented based on the idea of Kalman prediction. The neural networks used the Back Propagation （BP） algorithm and applied it to the prediction of rolling load in hot strip mill. The theoretical results and the off-line simulation show that the prediction capability of IFNN is better than that of normal BP networks, namely, for the prediction of the rolling load in hot strip mill, the prediction precision of IFNN is higher than that of normal BP networks. Finally, a relative complete rolling load prediction system was developed on Windows 2003/XP platform using the OOP programming method and the SQL server2000 database. With this sys- tem, the rolling load of a 1700 strip mill was calculated, and the prediction results obtained correspond well with the field data. It shows that IFNN is valid for rolling load prediction.

Test research on sticking mechanism during hot rolling of SUS 430 ferritic stainless steel

The sticking phenomenon during hot rolling of SUS 430 ferritic stainless steel was investigated by means of a two-disc type high-temperature wear tester. The test results indicate that sticking particles on the surfaces of high chromium steel （HiCr） and high-speed steel （HSS） rolls undergo nucleation, growth, and saturation stages. Grooves on the roll surface generated by grinding provide nucleation sites for sticking particles. The number of sticking particles on the HiCr roll surface is greater than that on the HSS roll surface. The average surface roughnesses （Ra） of HiCr and HSS rolls change from 0.502 and 0.493 μm at the initial stage to 0.837 and 0.530 μm at the saturation stage, respectively. The test further proves that the sticking behavior is strongly dependent on roll materials, and the HSS roll is more benefi- cial to prevent particles sticking compared with the HiCr roll under the same hot-rolling conditions.

Recrystallization model for hot-rolling of 5182 aluminum alloy

A recrystallization model for hot rolling of 5182 aluminum alloy was presented by means of the fractional softening during double interval deformation. It is found that the recrystallization rate depends on strain rate more sensitively than deformation temperature, and the time for full recrystallization is very short as strain rate is greater than 1?s -1 . Using the recrystallization—time—temperature curves, the desirable hot rolled microstructure can be obtained by controlling the rolling speed, temperature and cooling rate before cooling during the last pass in reversing mill.[