Research on plastic deformation behaviour and conditions for stepped hole ring rolling

Abstract

Stepped hole ring rolling is an advanced forming technique, in which ring is formed by rolling under the action of ring rolling mill. Boundary and contact conditions of stepped hole ring rolling are different from that of rectangular section ring, and there are active deformation and passive deformation in rolling process. Then, the plastic deformation behaviour of stepped hole ring rolling is more complicated than that of rectangular section ring, various rolling defects are easy to be formed, and the rolling stability and forming quality are hard to be ensured. In this paper, three-dimensional finite element (FE) model for plastic penetration of stepped hole ring rolling is firstly established under the ABAQUS software environment. Through FE simulation, the expanding rules of plastic zone in the plastic penetration process of stepped hole ring rolling are revealed, and four kinds of plastic deformation behaviour existing in stepped hole ring rolling and their conditions are studied. The rolling conditions for stepped hole ring blank are determined at last, and their validity are testified by experiments of stepped hole ring rolling.