Coupled models of heat transfer and phase transformation for the run-out table in hot rolling

Mathematical models are been proposed to simulate the thermal and metallurgical behaviors of the strip occurring on the run-out table (ROT) in a hot strip mill. A variational method is utilized for the discretization of the governing transient conduction-convection equation, with heat transfer coefficients adaptively determined by the actual mill data. To consider the thermal effect of phase transformation during cooling, a constitutive equation for describing austenite decomposition kinetics of steel in air and water cooling zones is coupled with the heat transfer model. As the basic required inputs in the numerical simulations, thermal material properties are experimentally measured for three carbon steels and the least squares method is used to statistically derive regression models for the properties, including specific heat and thermal conductivity. The numerical simulation and experimental results show that the setup accuracy of the temperature prediction system of ROT is effectively improved.