Optimised Cooling Using Finite Element Modelling
In the last few years fully calibrated cooling and distortion models have been developed using the ABAQUS commercial software package, together with in-house subroutines to account for steel chemistries and transformation.
The approach is a sequentially coupled model so that a purely cooling model can be performed alone or residual stresses and distortion can be obtained.
The technique has been applied across a wide variety of sections, both symmetric and asymmetric. It bypasses the need for expensive trial rollings of alternate geometries and can quickly focus in on the detailed requirements for any plant apparatus. It has also been used to assess bottlenecks during cooling.
