Development of Customized GUI for Finite Element Modeling of H-Beam Manufacturing Process Coupled with Cellular Automata Method for Predicting Microstructure Evolution

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Conventionally, hot rolled H-beams are manufactured by re-heating a blank, going through multiple mills to the final target size and shape, and finally quenching to achieve target mechanical properties through microstructure control. The highly reduced flange and web during rolling, and inhomogeneous cooling rates are causes for shape distortion due to the inhered residual stress. For cost efficiency, finite element simulation is commonly used for predicting and optimizing the process to target. An automated multi-pass hot rolling simulation using ABAQUS with customized Graphical User Interface (GUI) is proposed in this study. Prior to each subsequent rolling pass, the highly distorted meshes are re-meshed after solving the steady-state condition of each pass. The accumulated plastic deformation and temperature change are then passed on for metallurgical simulations. For analysis of microstructure evolution during each pass, the cellular automata (CA) method is implied to the metallurgical simulation model. In addition, the thermo-mechanical data obtained is passed on to predict the phase transformation and microstructure distribution in the H-beam during water quenching and air cooling using ABAQUS via user subroutine. In this study, a user-friendly method is proposed to simulate a rather complex manufacturing process and predict the microstructure evolution, which can be further extended to predicting residual stress.