Evaluation of energy-power parameters of billet helical piercing in accordance with metal forming peculiarities in deformation zone

Improving the process of billets piercing on helical rolling mills is closely related to the study of the nature of metal forming in deformation zone. The parameters of true deformation zone are determined by a combination of factors: calibration of the deformation tools and their positioning in the deformation zone, shape of the contact surface, the process conditions (especially in its unsteady stage), etc. As a result, it is quite difficult to accurately determine these parameters relying only on geometric representation of the deformation zone. These difficulties in the analy­tical description of the nature of metal forming in the deformation zone do not allow one to accurately determine the contact surface width from the actual geometry of the deformation zone, and with it the area of the contact surface, and therefore to estimate the process energy–power parameters. The work involved studying the billet helical piercing using FEM (finite-element method) modeling of the process in order to adjust the calculated parameters of the geometric deformation zone and to assess the energy-power parameters. The paper presents the results of the method application for assessing the billet forming during helical piercing using the FEM modeling software. This method makes it possible to take into account the complex nature of the metal flow in the deformation zone and to adjust the calculated parameters for estimation of the process energy-power parameters. The calculation results showed the convergence of the values of the rolling moments with the graph of the rolling moment obtained from the control panel of the piercing mill in the pipe rolling shop No. 1 of JSC Seversky Pipe Plant when piercing 360 mm diameter billets into a sleeve measuring D×S = 433×26 mm made of steel grade D.

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