Towards an intelligent FE simulation for real-time temperature-controlled radial-axial ring rolling process

The rolling path for a radial-axial ring rolling (RARR) process defines the matched motions of all the rolls including the main roll, mandrel, guide rolls and axial rolls. Materials with low thermal conductivity such as titanium alloys show an overheating in the local region of the ring due to the concentration of forming energy. The temperature sensitivity of these materials leads to severe microstructure and forming defects. Therefore, for the RARR process of titanium alloy rings, it is a core industrial technology to plan a rolling path by which the temperature in the whole ring can be maintained within a desired range (a designed control objective of ring temperature) to improve the mechanical properties. In this work, an intelligent real-time temperature-controlled finite element (FE) model for the RARR process of TA15 titanium alloy rings has been developed under ABAQUS/Explicit software. In the intelligent simulation, by establishing a ring growth velocity model relating to the ring temperature, the motions of various rolls could be driven in real time by the control objective of the ring temperature. Without definition of rolling path prior to the simulation, the new intelligent simulation realizes the self-adaptive control of rolling process to maintain the ring temperature within a desired range. By only one calculation, the rolling path satisfying the control objective of temperature can be obtained. This work achieves quick planning of the rolling path for real-time temperature-controlled RARR process.