Analysis of flow and stresses in a tube stretch-reducing hot rolling schedule

Analytical expressions for the roll-pass geometry, velocity, strain, strain rate and stress components are obtained for steady-state tube stretch-reducing hot rolling. From these expressions the reduction in tube diameter and wall thickness, inter-stand tensions, roll load and rolling torque have been determined in relation to the roll gap opening and the inter-stand velocity increase ratio. The results have shown that increasing the interstand velocity increase ratio will increase the inter-stand tension while the roll load remains almost unchanged. The rolling torque increases with the increase of the back inter-stand velocity increase ratio and decreases with the increase of the ratio at the front. There is a limiting value for the inter-stand velocity increase ratio at which the rolling process will tend to become unstable. The analysis has been validated by comparing the theoretical results with on-line power measurements on an industrial tube stretch-reducing hot rolling mill.