Accounting for shear deformation in fast models for plate rolling

For on-line prediction of roll force and torque, fast models have been available for a long time, which are mainly based on the slab method or other solution methods that allow for computing times in the range of seconds. Such fast models typically treat the rolling process as a plane strain problem and neglect shear deformation, which is always present in real processes. The shear deformation results in inhomogeneous strain profiles and thus might lead to inhomogeneity in microstructure over plate thickness. In this paper, a novel method is presented that allows for superposition of shear strain onto the strain state obtained from the slab method. The shear strains are interpolated from an extensive finite element (FE) parameter study of rolling processes that covers the entire parameter range of today’s plate rolling. For the regimes of very thick and thin plates different interpolation functions are introduced. It is shown that when the proposed shear strain model is combined with the slab method, similar results are obtained as with a full-scale FE calculation of the rolling problem but with a calculation time in the range of seconds.