Evaluation on some important force models for cold strip rolling

To improve the accuracy of rolling force prediction, some important force models were evaluated through applied computation for cold rolling of low carbon steel and aluminum alloy according to measured data on lab mill. The effects of model structure and three important variables ‐ flow stress, contact length and friction coefficient ‐ on the precision of computed force were quantitatively studied. Flow stress was measured with plane‐strain compression test, contact length was based on elastic flattening of work‐roll by Hitchcock, and friction‐coefficient was determined by rolling strain and numerical iteration. In steel rolling Bland & Ford integration model and Bryant & Osborn algebraic equation are better in accuracy than Ekelund and Parkins. In aluminum rolling all the models produce large deviations Δ F R = 10–20% if flow stress, contact length and friction coefficient are determined with the same method as steel rolling. The elastic deformation of aluminum strip is now taken into account for its low elastic modulus. An effective method to determine plastic and elastic contact has been developed in this investigation. The accuracy of force computation is obviously improved for aluminum rolling.