Using commercial finite element (FE) analysis software DEFORM-3D, a rigid plastic thermomechanical finite element model was developed to investigate inhomogeneous plastic deformations during heavy plate hot rolling. A single pass rolling process, a longitudinal rolling process and a broadside-longitudinal rolling process were simulated by this 3D FE model. The simulated results of the broadside-longitudinal rolling process were in good agreement with the actual rolled one. Basing on the simulation results, formation laws of concave side shapes and convex end shapes were clarified. Evolutions of the uneven shapes in the longitudinal rolling process and the broadside-longitudinal rolling process were analysed in detail. The results obtained from the simulation results provided guidelines for further investigation on plate plan view pattern control.

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From a new viewpoint to improve plate plan view pattern during hot rolling, a plate edging process was proposed to roll back only the plate width spread of conventional rolling in this paper. Using commercial finite element (FE) analysis software DEFORM-3D, a three-dimensional rigid plastic FE model for vertical-horizontal (V-H) hot rolling was developed on the basis of a 5 m wide and heavy plate mill. Three hundred and twenty kinds of different V-H rolling processes were simulated by the FE model. Basing on the simulation results, the formation laws of dog bone shape during the vertical rolling and the width spread behaviours during the horizontal rolling were clarified. A plate edging model predicting the plate edging efficiency was established with the aid of an artificial neural network. The plate edging efficiency predicted by this plate edging model agreed well with those predicted by the existing strip edging models when the slab width/thickness ratio was small, which confirmed the validity of the plate edging model. The plate edging model expanded its application scope into the wide and heavy plate hot rolling.