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Applied Thermal Engineering 58 (2013) 241e251

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Applied Thermal Engineering


journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Three-dimensional temperature distributions of strip in continuous


annealing line
Zong-Wei Kang, Tei-Chen Chen*
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan, ROC

h i g h l i g h t s
 3-D temperature distributions of strip in CAL were calculated by two methods.
 Crown of rolls has a signicant inuence on the transverse temperature distribution of strip.
 Phase transformations have a signicant inuence on the longitudinal temperature distribution of strip.
 3-D temperature distributions of strip in CAL can be used to predict the residual stress and warpage of strip.

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 4 December 2012
Accepted 31 March 2013
Available online 17 April 2013

In this study, the three-dimensional (3-D) temperature distributions of strip in the whole continuous
annealing line (CAL) were evaluated by using the techniques of energy balance method (EBM) and nite
element method (FEM). The results show that both the effects of ferriteeaustenite phase transition of the
steel strip and the thermal contact resistance between the strip and taper rolls have very signicant
inuence upon the distributions of temperature. These taper rolls tend to introduce the non-uniform
distributions of the temperature and plastic deformation along both the width and thickness of the
strip which are closely related to the phenomenon of warping during punching process. Although the
computational time by EBM is very short compared to that by FEM, the results evaluated by these two
methods are well consistent.
2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Continuous annealing line (CAL)
Finite element method (FEM)
Energy balance method (EBM)
Thermal contact resistance

1. Introduction
The continuous annealing line (CAL) is characterized by faster
delivery and higher thermal efciency than conventional batch
annealing and can provide a sound heat treatment on the strip
materials with higher quality. Sound control of the temperature
along the continuous annealing furnace is important to guarantee
the physical properties of the nal product and to save energy of
operation. In the CAL, the crowns with various proles are given to
hearth rolls for the purpose of preventing strip snaking. However,
these crowns easily introduce non-uniform distributions of temperature along the width which may result in the local plastic strain
due to both the thermal and mechanical loadings. These local
plastic strains of the strip material will then be accumulated and
nally may lead to the residual stress and warpage of the strip

* Corresponding author. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Cheng


Kung University, No. 1 University Road, Tainan 70101, Taiwan, ROC. Tel.: 886 6
2757575; fax: 886 6 2352973.
E-mail address: ctcx831@mail.ncku.edu.tw (T.-C. Chen).
1359-4311/$ e see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2013.03.062

during punching process. Since the direct contact temperature


measurement is difcult to perform due to the high speed of the
strip and possible damage to the steel. On the other hand, indirect
measurement as pyrometers is also imprecise in consideration of
complicated radiation interaction between several surfaces in the
furnace. It would be helpful to establish a physical model to observe
the temperature history of strip and to gain knowledge of the
detailed mechanisms of heat transfer between each component.
Prieto et al. [1] developed a powerful stepwise thermal model to
estimate the 1-D temperature history in CAL without taking thermal contact between roll and strip into account. Ho and Chen [2,3]
extended Prietos model to evaluate the 2-D temperature distributions of strip in preheating section (PHS) along the longitudinal
and transverse directions by taking the thermal contact resistance
between the strip and the rolls as well as view factor of radiation
into account. In the CAL, the rolls with crown are necessary to avoid
the strip snaking [4]. A schematic diagram of roll is shown in Fig. 1.
However, the crown generates not only the non-uniform distribution of tensile stress in the transverse direction but also the noncontact between the taper roll and outside of strip which lead to

242

Z.-W. Kang, T.-C. Chen / Applied Thermal Engineering 58 (2013) 241e251

Nomenclature
surface area, m2
specic heat at constant pressure, J/kg-K
strip thickness, m
Youngs modulus, GPa
least square error
view factor
traction, N/m2
Gebhart factors
heat transfer coefcient, W/(m2-K)
equivalent heat transfer coefcient, W/(m2-K)
strip thickness, m
side length of strip, m
number of surfaces in enclosure
Nusselt number
Prandtl number
heat ux, W/m2
heat transfer rate, W
conductive heat ux, W/m2
qC
qR
convection/radiation heat ux, W/m2
r
radial distance from the center, m
R
radiative exchange factors for application of Gebhart
method
Ra
Rayleigh number
thermal contact resistance, (m2-K)/W
Rc
Re
Reynolds number
surface, m2
SF
t
time, s
T
temperature, K
atmosphere temperature in furnace, K
TN
u
strip speed, m/s
displacement vector, m
ui
U
displacement, m
V
control volume, m3
w
strip width, m
X,Y,Z; x,y,z Cartesian coordinates
a
phase of ferrite
ath
thermal expansion coefcient, 1/K
aR
thermal diffusivity of roll, m2/s
g
phase of austenite in steel material

emissivity
strain tensor
ij
q
coordinate in circumferential direction
q0
angular width of the periphery in contact with strip
A
cp
e
E
Er
F
Fi
G
h
heq
H
LS
n
Nu
Pr
q
Q_

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of hearth roll and strip.

l
m
n
r
s
sij
sn
sy
u
d
Dt

thermal conductivity, W/(m-K)


dynamic viscosity, Pa-s
Poissons ratio
density, kg/m3
StefaneBoltzmann constant, W/(m2-K4)
stress tensor, Pa
contact pressure, MPa
yield strength, Pa
angular speed of roll, rad/s
Kronecker delta
time interval, s

Subscripts
ce
ceiling
cond
conduction mechanism
conv
convection mechanism
en
enclosures

oor
hp
heating plate
hp-l
to indicate heat transfer rate from heating plate to
enclosure placed on left
hp-r
to indicate heat transfer rate from heating plate to
enclosure placed on right
i,j
generic surface index
in
refers to enclosure inlet conditions
loss
losses through walls
out
refers to enclosure outlet conditions
rad
radiation mechanism
R
rolls
s
strip
s-a
to indicate heat transfer rate from strip to enclosure
located above
s-b
to indicate heat transfer rate from strip to enclosure
located below
s-l
to indicate heat transfer rate from strip to enclosure
located on left
s-r
to indicate heat transfer rate from strip to enclosure
located on right
sw
side walls
S-H
strip in horizontal position
S-V
strip in vertical position
w
walls
ws
inner surfaces of walls
Ns
thermal conditions in surroundings of furnace
Nen
thermal conditions in enclosure atmosphere of furnace

the non-uniform temperature distributions of the strip along the


transverse direction. In addition, when the tension of strip is
decreased, the snaking of strip may occur easier. Therefore, the
tension of the strip should keep at a high level, and this situation
may induce the heat bucking in the transverse direction.
As reported in the previous study [3], the strip in PHS is still
deformed within the elastic range. However, as the strip temperature is signicantly increased in heating section (HS), the plastic
deformation will take place due to the decrease of yield strength of
strip at high temperature. Based on the FeeC phase diagram, the
ferriteeaustenite phase transition occurs near 727 OC, where the
crystal structures of the phases of ferrite a and austenite g are BCC
and FCC, respectively. The volume change due to this phase transition can be considered by modifying the value of thermal
expansion coefcient, while the effect of latent heat accompanied
with can be accommodated by the curve of specic heat. The

Z.-W. Kang, T.-C. Chen / Applied Thermal Engineering 58 (2013) 241e251

Fig. 2. Simplied schematic diagram of CAL.

phenomena of phase transformations involving austenite, ferrite,


pearlite, bainite, and martensite are very important in the heat
treatment of steel.
To the authors knowledge, there exist very few studies relevant
to the 3-D temperature distribution of strip in CAL. In this study, the
3-D temperature distributions of strip in the CAL, composed of PHS,
HS, soaking section (SS) and cooling section (CS), were theoretically
evaluated and discussed under some specic operational conditions. Both the techniques of energy balance method (EBM) and
nite element method (FEM) were utilized to deal with the thermal
and mechanical models of the problems. The results were
compared and discussed. The surface temperatures of rolls and the
contact pressure between strip and roll were rst evaluated by
energy model of roll and mechanical model of strip through nite
element simulation, respectively [5]. And then the corresponding
thermal contact resistance between the roll and strip was determined via the contact pressure. Finally, the longitudinal and
transverse temperature distributions of strip in the whole CAL were
evaluated iteratively under different operational conditions by
either EBM or FEM.

243

left side and moves alternately upward and downward. The total
numbers of major rolls in PHS, HS, SS, and CS are 1, 13, 7 and 1,
respectively. As the steel strip is moving through the taper rolls, the
thermal contact conductance between the strip and rolls should be
taken into account. Indirect radiative heating tubes are utilized in
the PHS, HS, and SS, while turbulent jets of air are installed in CS to
quench the strip. These heating tubes are situated between both
sides of the strip. Combustion of coke oven gas or propane takes
place inside these heating tubes. Since a great number of heating
tube rows in types of multiple U shape and W shape are arranged in
the PHS, HS, and SS of CAL, they can be satisfactorily considered as
heating planes in thermal model. These heating planes supply the
thermal energy to the strip, the walls and the furnace atmosphere.
The atmosphere of the furnace is made up of a mixture of nitrogen
and hydrogen (93%N2 and 7%H2). The materials used for the furnace
walls are described in Table 1, including the ceiling, the side walls
and the oor. The ceiling and the side walls are made of the superimposition of the rst ve materials, and the oor is made of the
last two materials. The detail dimensions in various furnaces are
shown as in Table 1. The input data of computational model include
the furnace dimension, the strip dimension (1204  0.503 mm), the
physical properties of the walls [1], strip velocity (3.3 m/s), strip
density (7860 kg/m3), and the temperature at entry (298 K). The
temperature of air is not uniform throughout the furnace. The atmosphere temperatures at different zones experimentally
measured by thermocouples are listed in Table 2, in which the
zones divided in each section are shown in Fig. 2. The physical
properties of the atmosphere are listed in Table 3 [2,3]. The sizes of
rolls are shown in Table 4. In addition, the view factors between
two any components of enclosure can be calculated by the formula
in the article [6].
Fig. 3 shows a representative enclosure to illustrate the energy
balance for each of the components in the enclosures, including the
heating plate, the walls, the strip and the enclosure. The associated
relations of energy balance at each following component in the
furnace can be expressed as [2]:
(1) Heating plate
Energy balance should be remained at the heating plate. In other
words, the heat supplied by the heating plate should be equal to
total heat moving out of the heating plate via the convection and
the radiation, as shown in Fig. 3, and can be written as

2. Mathematical model
2.1. EBM scheme to evaluate strip temperature
A simplied scheme of components in CAL considered in the
present study is illustrated in Fig. 2, which includes PHS, HS, SS, and
CS. In EBM scheme, the individual dimensions of PHS, HS, SS, and CS
were 17.828  3  2.3 m, 22.62  11.9  2.4 m, 22.62  6.75  2.4 m
and 25.02  3.8  3.2 m, and were divided into 7, 30, 13 and 7
enclosures, respectively. The strip is fed into the furnace from the

Q_ hp Q_ conv;hpen

Q_ rad;hpj

(1)

j ce;sw;fl;s

where Q_ hp denotes the heat supplied by the heating plate,


Q_ conv;hpen represents the heat owing out of the heating plate to
P
Q_ rad;hpj
the environment via the convection, while
j ce;sw;fl;s

Table 1
Materials used for ceiling, side walls and oor [1].
Material

t, mm

t, mm

t, mm

t, mm

l, W/(m-K)

Ceiling and side walls


Rock wool
Rigid rock wool
Ceramic bre (96 kg/m2)
Ceramic bre (128 kg/m2)
Steel sheet

PHS (ce/sw)
30/30
50/50
35/35
37/37
3/3

HS (ce/sw)
30/30
50/50
35/35
37/37
3/3

SS (ce/sw)
96/48
162/81
114/57
120/60
8/4

CS (c/sw)
96/48
162/81
114/57
120/60
8/4

2  107T2
2  107T2
2  107T2
107T2 8
0.015T 9

Floor
Calcium silicate
Insulating re brick JM23

PHS
150
115

HS
150
115

SS
283
217

CS
283
217

107T2 2  105T 0.0464


2  108T2 5  105T 0.0993




2  105T 0.0239
2  105T 0.0239
2  105T 0.0132
105T  0.0014

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Z.-W. Kang, T.-C. Chen / Applied Thermal Engineering 58 (2013) 241e251

Table 2
Atmosphere temperatures at different zones of CAL.

Table 4
Size of roll in CAL.

Temperature (K)

PHS

HS

SS

CS

Size of roll (mm)

L1

L2

D1

D2

Zone
Zone
Zone
Zone

470
469
e
e

1096
1116
1126
1136

1089
e
e
e

578
526
518
514

PHS
HS
SS
CS

500
500
500
500

210
210
575
210

340
365
300
365

750
750
750
750

749
748
749
748

0.5
1.0
0.5
1.0

1
2
3
4

shows the heat moving out of the heating plate to the ceiling, the
side wall, the oor, and the strip via the radiation.
(2) Ceiling of the furnace
Energy balance is also satised at the ceiling of the furnace. It
means the total heat absorbed by the ceiling through the convection and the radiation should equal to the heat loss to the surrounding of the furnace, as shown in Fig. 3.

Q_ loss;ce Q_ conv;ceen

Q_ rad;cej

(2)

j hp;sw;fl;s

where Q_ loss;ce denotes the heat loss from the ceiling to the surrounding of the furnace, Q_ conv;ceen represents the heat absorbed
by the ceiling from the environment via the convection, while
P
shows the heat absorbed by the ceiling from the
Q_
j hp;sw;fl;s

rad;cej

heating plate, the side wall, the oor, and the strip via the radiation.
(3) Side walls of the furnace
Energy balance is also satised at the side wall of the furnace. It
means the total heat absorbed by the side wall through convection
and radiation should equal to the heat loss to the surrounding of the
furnace, as shown in Fig. 3.

Q_ loss;sw Q_ conv;swen

Q_ rad;swj

(3)

j hp;ce;fl;s

j hp;ce;sw;s

rad;flj

heating plate, the ceiling, the side wall, and the strip via radiation.
(5) Vertical strip
The total heat absorbed by the vertical strip should equal to the
heat transferred to the left and right sides of the strip through the
convection and the radiation, as shown in Fig. 3. This net absorbed
heat leads to the increase of the strip temperature, as shown in Eq. (5).

Q_ conv;sl Q_ rad;sl Q_ conv;sr Q_ rad;sr Q_ SV




Q_ SV rs ewucp;SV TSV;out  TSV;in

(5)

where Q_ conv;sl and Q_ conv;sr denote the heat transferred to the left
and right sides of the strip through convection, respectively;
Q_ rad;sl and Q_ rad;sr denote the heat transferred to the left and right
represents
sides of the strip through radiation, respectively; Q_
SV

the heat absorbed by the vertical strip, rs, e, w, u and cp,S-V denote
the density, the thickness, the width, the speed and the specic
heat of the vertical strip, respectively; TS-V,out and TS-V,in are the
temperature of the vertical strip at the outlet and the inlet,
respectively.
(6) Horizontal strip

where Q_ loss;sw denotes the heat loss from the side wall to the surrounding of the furnace, Q_ conv;swen represents the heat absorbed
by the side wall from the environment via the convection, while
P
denotes the heat absorbed by the side wall from
Q_
j hp;ce;fl;s

where Q_ loss;fl denotes the heat loss from the oor to the surrounding of the furnace, Q_ conv;flen represents the heat absorbed by
the oor from the environment via convection, while
P
shows the heat absorbed by the oor from the
Q_

rad;swj

the heating plate, the ceiling, the oor, and the strip via the
radiation.

The total heat absorbed by the horizontal strip should equal to


the heat transferred to the upper and bottom sides of the strip
through the convection, the radiation and the contact heat conduction of the roll, as shown in Fig. 3. This net absorbed heat leads
to the increase of the strip temperature, as shown in Eq. (6), in
which

(4) Floor of the furnace


Energy balance is also satised at the oor of the furnace. It
means the total heat absorbed by the oor through the convection
and the radiation should equal to the heat loss to the surrounding of
the furnace, as shown in Fig. 3.

Q_ loss;fl Q_ conv;flen

Q_ rad;flj

(4)

j hp;ce;sw;s

Table 3
Properties of atmosphere [2,3].
Property

Function

Range

r, kg/m

325.38/T
1.096  104T2 5.499  102T 1054.84
6.358  105T 1.299  102
2.966  108T 1.011  105

400
400
400
400

cp, J/kg K
l, W/m K
m, Pa s

<
<
<
<

T(K)
T(K)
T(K)
T(K)

<
<
<
<

1000
1000
1000
1000

Fig. 3. Enclosure surfaces and heat transfer rates in EBM.

Z.-W. Kang, T.-C. Chen / Applied Thermal Engineering 58 (2013) 241e251

Q_ conv;sa Q_ rad;sa Q_ conv;sb Q_ rad;sb Q_ cond;sR Q_ SH




Q_ SH rs ewucp;SH TSH;out  TSH;in
Q_ cond;sR TR  Ts =Rc sn
(6)
where Q_ conv;sa and Q_ conv;sb denote the heat transferred to the
upper and bottom sides of the strip through the convection,
respectively, Q_ rad;sa and Q_ rad;sb denote the heat transferred to the
upper and bottom sides of the strip through the radiation,
respectively, Q_ SH represents the heat absorbed by the horizontal
strip, TS-H,out and TS-H,in are the temperature of the horizontal strip
at the outlet and the inlet, respectively, Q_ cond;sR represents the
heat transferred to the strip through the contact heat conduction of
the roll, TR and Ts are the surface temperature of the roll and the
strip, respectively, Rc denotes the contact heat resistance between
the roll and the strip that is dependent upon the contact pressure,
sn, between these two bodies.
(7) Furnace atmosphere
The total heat absorbed by and supplied to the surrounding
components through the convection should be balanced, as shown
in Eq. (7):

Q_ conv;jen 0

(7)

surrounding, the temperature in the enclosure atmosphere TNen, as


shown in Eq. (9), should be replaced by the temperature of the
furnace surrounding, TNs. The convective heat transfer coefcients,
hi, are calculated using the Nusselt number, Nu. Moreover, the
contact heat resistance between the roll and the strip, Rc(sn), and
the surface temperature of each roll, TR, can be determined by the
mechanical model of strip and energy model of roll introduced as
follows, respectively.
2.1.1. Mechanical model of strip [3]
The mechanical formulation is based on the elasto-plastic nite
element formulation that is one of the extreme principles proposed
by Hill [8]. The weak form of this principle leads to the following
equation in terms of the arbitrary variation of the displacement [9]:

sij dij dV 
V

Fi dui dS 0

P
j hp;ce;sw;fl;s

where V is the control volume limited by the surface SF on which


the traction Fi is prescribed, sij, ij, and ui denote the stress tensor,
strain tensor, and displacement vector, respectively. A coupled
thermal elasto-plastic theory is adopted in the mechanical model of
the strip. Only half roll and strip in width are established due to the
geometrical symmetry, as illustrated in Fig. 4. The strip meshed
with quadratic quadrilaterals shell element (8 nodes) is plotted as

Q_ conv;jen denotes the total heat transfer be-

tween the surrounding and the heating plate, the ceiling, the side
wall, the oor, and the strip via the convection.
Consequently, totally seven unknown parameters in each
enclosure, including six unknown temperatures for the heating
plate, the ceiling, the side wall, the oor, and the strip in the horizontal and the vertical positions, as well as one unknown heating
power for the heating plate, can be completely determined by
solving the equations from (1) to (7).
The radiative heat transfer rates, which are calculated using the
technique of surface to surface approach, can be expressed by Eq. (8).



n
P
Ri;j Ti4  Tj4
Q_ rad;i
j1



Ri;j Ai si di;j  Gi;j
Gi;j

F
 i;j j

(8)

di;j  1  j Fi;j

where n is the number of surfaces surrounding the surface i; j is a


generic subscript for each of the surfaces that proceed heat exchange by radiation; Ti and Tj are the temperature at the surfaces i
and j, respectively; Ri,j are the exchange factors that depend on the
surface emissivities and the view factors; Fi,j, Ai is the surface area; s
is the StefaneBoltzmann constant; i is the emissivity; di,j is the
Kronecker delta and Gi,j denotes the Gebhart factor proposed by
Siegel and Howell [7]. The view factors can be referred to the work
of Gross et al. [6] under the condition of rectangular surfaces on the
parallel or the perpendicular planes.
The convective heat transfer rates for the surfaces are calculated by

Q_ conv;i Ai hi Ti  TNen

(9)

where TNen is the temperature in the enclosure atmosphere. For the


case of the convective heat transfer with respect to the furnace

(10)

SF

j hp;ce;sw;fl;s

where

245

Fig. 4. Mechanical model of strip.

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Z.-W. Kang, T.-C. Chen / Applied Thermal Engineering 58 (2013) 241e251

shown in Fig. 4(a). The side length of strip, LS, as shown in Fig. 4(b),
is assumed as p times the diameter of roll for taking the heat
transfer program of nite element model into account [3]. Contact
elements are prescribed between the strip and the roll to ensure a
suitable contact condition between them. The contact stress of strip
passing through each roll can be determined by using the temperature of strip obtained by FEM. The roll is assumed to be rigid
and xed at its center, i.e., Ux UY UZ 0 at X Y Z 0.
Moreover, the displacement of strip at the central line along the Zdirection, UZ, should be also equal to zero. The boundary conditions
and constraints are shown in Fig. 4(b). Taking a rigid displacement
as load is more reasonable than a uniform tension in the actual
process [10]. A small displacement is applied at both ends of strip to
create the suitable tension (5000  10% N) performed actually by
the factory. The contact pressures between the strip and the roll are
evaluated by the nite element method and then converted to the
thermal contact resistances by using the following relation [11]




.
m2  K W
Rc sn 0:33 1:175e0:521sn  103

(11)

where Rc is the thermal contact resistance corresponding to the


applied contact pressure sn. This relation was obtained by using the
method of least squares under the tests performed on two steel
specimens with as-rolled clean surfaces without loose mill scale at
contact pressure 0e30 MPa and maximum temperatures 450e
700 K. Moreover, the measured roughness of the contact surfaces is
within the range of 1.3e7.0 mm. This relation of the contact
pressure-dependent thermal contact resistance between two
blocks, described by Eq. (11), is also in good agreement with the
experimental data reported by the literature [12]. The thermal
contact resistances converted from the thermal contact pressures
are substituted into the energy balance equations. Consequently,
the revised temperature of strip can be obtained. One can repeat
these procedures until the strip temperature is converged within a
satisfactory tolerance.
2.1.2. Energy model of roll [3]
This energy model is used to determine the surface temperatures of rolls which are continuously contacting with strip and
exposing to the furnace atmosphere for a long time period.
Consequently, these rolls, initially having the same temperature as
furnace atmosphere, are heated over one portion through the
mechanisms of heat convection/radiation by exposing to hot
furnace atmosphere and cooled over the remaining portion of the
periphery through contact heat conduction by the cold strip. Both
the Lagragian and Eulerian descriptions can be used in thermal
analysis of roll. For the Lagragian one (observer xed to the strip or
roll), the thermal eld must be represented as time-dependent.
However, after a short transient, the thermal eld becomes
quasi-stationary. On the other hand, for the Eulerian one (observer
xed to the laboratory), the temperature eld becomes stationary.
In this work, Lagragian description rather than Eulerian description was adopted in thermal analysis of roll, since an additional
convective term, which is difcult to deal with in ANSYS, should
be included for the latter description. The thermal boundary
conditions of contact heat transfer with respect to strip and
convective/radiative heat transfer with respect to furnace atmosphere were individually prescribed at the rotating speed of roll
along the specic periphery of roll. The transient temperature of
roll, TR, can be obtained by solving the energy balance equation
given by

v2 TR 1 vTR 1 v2 TR
1 vTR

2
aR vt
r vr
r vq2
vr 2

with initial condition at t 0 and thermal boundary conditions at


rR

TR x; y; z; t TN ;

t 0

(13)

ut  q  q0 ut

(14)

lR

vTR
T T
R
;
Rc sn
vr

lR

vTR
heq TR  TN ;
vr

q0 ut  q  2p ut

(15)

where aR (kR/rRcp-R) is the thermal diffusivity of roll; kR, rR, and cpdenote the thermal conductivity, density, and specic heat capacity of roll, respectively; u is the angular speed of roll; while q0
denotes the angular width of the periphery in contact with strip.
The temperature-dependent mechanical properties of the steel
strip including Poissons ratio, n(0.3), thermal expansion coefcient, ath, Youngs modulus, E, yield strength, sy [13] and specic
heat capacity [14], were shown in Fig. 5. The effect of latent heat
(76 kJ/kg) created during ferriteeaustenite phase transition can be
considered by using the modied specic heat capacity curve
adopted by Brown et al. [15] and Frewin et al. [16] in ABAQUS and
ANSYS, respectively.
The computational procedure of energy balance model was
divided into two steps. First, the temperatures of heating plane,
ceiling, side walls, oor, vertical and horizontal strips were determined in each enclosure by solving the energy balance equations
iteratively. Secondly, the strip was divided into several imaginary
narrow strips along the width direction in each enclosure. Different
view factor was specied individually in each imaginary narrow
strip. The temperatures of strip in various imaginary narrow strips
were evaluated by the temperatures of heating plane and walls
obtained previously and thermal contact resistances distributed
along the width. A 2-D temperature distribution for the strip along
the length and width was thus obtained. The owchart, as shown in
Fig. 6, represents the computational algorithm to calculate the
temperature of heating plane, walls and strip by the energy balance
equations and nite element models.

(12)
Fig. 5. Physical properties of strip [13,14].

Z.-W. Kang, T.-C. Chen / Applied Thermal Engineering 58 (2013) 241e251

247

3-D mechanical model of the strip to evaluate the distributions of


contact pressure of the strip and the surface temperatures of all the rolls
in CAL, as well as to estimate the emissivity and equivalent heat transfer
coefcient of the strip in each section of CAL. Due to the coupling effect
between mechanical and energy models of strip, mainly attributed to
the effects of contact pressure-dependent thermal contact resistance,
temperature-dependent material properties and thermal strain, an
effort of coupled-eld analysis should be conducted. In addition, the
heat source that generated by mechanical deformation of strip is very
small and can be satisfactorily neglected. In order to evaluate 3-D distributions of temperature and stress of strip, a strip with nite length is
adopted in both mechanical and energy models. This strip passes
through the inlet and moves into the interior of CAL and then is subjected to the complicated convective/radiative heat ux from the hot
furnace atmosphere. The strip keeps moving and then in contact with
the roll, where a conductive heat ux due to thermal contact conductance between them takes place. The strip keeps moving forward and
nally passes though the outlet of the CAL. Consequently, the thermal
analyses of strip in CAL were mainly composed of two steps:
2.2.1. Estimation of equivalent emissivity or heat convective
coefcients of strip in each section of CAL
The methods of direct sensitivity coefcient [17] and the least
square error were employed to evaluate the equivalent emissivity of
strip in each section of CAL by using the measured strip temperature
at outlet of each section and the estimated strip temperature at some
specic locations along the length by energy balance model.
2.2.2. Energy model of strip [3]
When a strip with nite length is moving in the furnace, its
corresponding energy equation can be written as [18]

Fig. 6. Flowchart of simulation and algorithm of EBM.







v
vT
v
vT
v
vT
vT
lT
lT
lT

rTcp T
vx
vx
vy
vy
vz
vz
vt

(16)

The associated thermal boundary conditions prescribed upon


the strip are:

2.2. FEM scheme to evaluate strip temperature


Both the thermal and mechanical models were analyzed by using
the nite element code ANSYS to investigate the inuence of operational parameters on the temperature distributions of the strip especially along the width in CAL. This method mainly includes to establish

(a) As the strip does not contact with roll:


The total heat ux imposed on the strip is composed of heat
convection and radiation:

Fig. 7. Flowchart of simulation and algorithm of FEM.

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Z.-W. Kang, T.-C. Chen / Applied Thermal Engineering 58 (2013) 241e251



 


4
qR s TN
 T 4 h TN  T heq T  TN  T
where



2
T 2 TN T h
heq s TN

(17a)
(17b)

(b) As the strip is in contact with roll:


When the strip is passing through the roll, the area contacting to
the roll, denoted by the contact angle q, is subjected to the heat ux
due to the contact conduction, qC, while the remaining region of
strip is subjected to the convection/radiation heat uxes, qR. The

contact angle increases from 0 to 5, 10, ., 180 after each Dt as the


strip front starts to contact with the roll; while the contact angle
decreases by 5 after each Dt as the strip starts to leave the roll. The
relationship between thermal contact conduction and the temperature of strip can be expressed by

qC TR  T=Rc sn

(18)

where TR is the surface temperature of roll; T denotes the temperature of strip in contact to the roll; Rc is the thermal contact
resistance, that is a function of contact pressure sn.
Detailed solution procedures and algorithm of FEM scheme
were shown in Fig. 7. All the required input data, including the size
and physical properties of strip and roll, as well as the parameters
of CAL, should be provided as input data rst. It is obvious that a
numerically iterative solution procedure should be performed to
the mechanical and energy models of strip and roll. The contact
pressure and thermal contact resistance with an assumed initial
strip temperature and surface temperature of roll, generally estimated by EBM, were evaluated rst by mechanical model. A revised
temperature distribution of strip after completely passing over the
roll, that takes account of the inuence of thermal contact resistance and surface temperature of roll, was then calculated by the
energy model of strip. After that, the revised contact pressure and
the thermal contact resistance were evaluated again by mechanical
model. These solution procedures were iteratively proceeded until
a satised convergence in numerical solutions was obtained.
3. Results and discussions
The distributions of contact pressure and thermal contact
resistance in width as the strip is passing the No. 1 roll in HS were
shown in Fig. 8. It can be found that a uniform contact pressure was
induced at the central portion of the strip along the width direction,
while an extremely high peak of contact pressure was induced near
the edge of the crown. The value of contact pressure reduces to zero
near the two edges of the strip, where a signicant gap appears
between strip and roll. In other words, the situation of thermal
contact resistance disappears in these regions, where both the effects of thermal radiation and convection instead of thermal

Fig. 8. Contact pressure and thermal contact resistance of strip along the width at No.
1 roll of HS.

Fig. 9. Surface temperatures of rolls in CAL.

Z.-W. Kang, T.-C. Chen / Applied Thermal Engineering 58 (2013) 241e251

249

Fig. 12. Temperature distribution of strip at No. 1 roll in HS.

contact resistances should be imposed upon during numerical


simulation. This kind of contact pattern almost remains unchanged
as the strip passes the rolls in each section of CAL. In addition, the
data relevant to the surface temperature of rolls in CAL as a function
of strip temperature under different atmosphere temperature of
furnace are shown in Fig. 9, which is required and should be
determined in solution procedures of FEM and EBM schemes.
The equivalent heat convective coefcients, as dened in Eq.
(17b), were simplied to a constant in each section of CAL, which
actually should be temperature-dependent. The values of equivalent heat convective coefcient in PHS, HS, and SS determined by
inverse scheme were 6.31, 1.61, and 1.61 W/(m2-K), respectively,
while the values of equivalent heat convective coefcient in CS
corresponding to the cooling of air jet array (temperature of cooling

air was equal to 350 K) at central part and two sides were equal to
27 and 32 W/(m2-K), respectively. Higher equivalent heat convective coefcient in PHS was due to the higher temperature difference
between strip and furnace atmosphere. The temperature history of
strip in each section of CAL was shown in Fig. 10, where the strip
lengths in PHS, HS, SS and CS are 0e42.5, 42.5e337.2, 337.2e505.8
and 508e554.7 m, respectively. The outlet temperatures in various
sections were 401, 1058, 1080 and 923 K, respectively. A temperature gradient is produced suddenly when the strip is in contact
with each roll, since the effect of heat conductance is much higher
than heat convection and radiation. Moreover, it was found by
energy model of strip in FEM scheme that the strip temperature
always keeps uniform distribution in thickness in the whole CAL
even under such a high moving speed. In other words, only 2-D
temperature distributions of strip, i.e., along the wide and longitudinal directions, are required to be displayed and discussed.
When strip is moving in HS, the temperature of strip gradually
rises higher than 727  C and then the aeg phase transformations
occurs. On the other hand, as the temperature is decreased lower
than 727  C in CS, the reverse phase transformation from g to a
takes place. The effect of phase transformation on strip temperature is very signicant. As shown in Fig. 11, a maximum discrepancy
of 19.5  C of the strip temperature is produced in HS in case this

Fig. 11. Effect of phase transformation on temperature history of strip in HS.

Fig. 13. Temperature distribution of strip at No. 23 roll in CS.

Fig. 10. Temperature history of strip in CAL by FEM and EBM.

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Z.-W. Kang, T.-C. Chen / Applied Thermal Engineering 58 (2013) 241e251

effect is disregard. The temperature distributions of strip at the No.


1 roll in HS and the No. 23 roll of CS were shown as in Figs. 12 and
13, respectively.
The temperature distributions in the width at each section were
shown in Fig. 14. It can be seen that the temperature near the center
of strip is higher than the two sides due to the thermal contact
conductance between the roll and the strip, as shown in Fig. 14(a),
where No. 1 w 13 represent the temperature of strip just passing
through the No. 1 w 13 rolls in HS, respectively. The discrepancy of
temperature distributions between FEM and EBM schemes are
small and acceptable. On the other hand, when the strip is moving
at SS, the temperature rise near the center part of strip becomes
smaller due to smaller thermal contact effect between the strip and

the roll in SS than in HS. The maximum temperature difference


along the width of strip tends to decrease gradually and nally less
than a few degrees, as show in Fig. 14(b), where No. 15 w 21(SS) and
Exit(SS) represent the temperature distributions of strip just
passing through the No. 15 w 21 rolls and outlet in SS, respectively.
Finally, as the strip reaches to CS, the temperature of strip drops
signicantly due to the forced cooling effect of air jet array. It can be
seen that, the variation of transverse temperature near the center of
strip is due to the cooling effect of thermal contact conductance
between strip and roll, as shown in Fig. 14(b), where No. 23A(CS),
No. 23T(CS) and No. 23L(CS) represent the time instant that strip
just arrives at roll, at the top of roll and leaves the roll in CS,
respectively. The signicant temperature drop at two sides of strip
is due to the stronger forced convection of heat ow and radiation
interaction between the strip and the components in CS. The
temperature evaluated by scheme of EBM is in good agreement
with FEM. The computational time by the former is only about
5 min by personal computer (Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU
2.33 GHz), signicantly shorter than the latter.
4. Conclusion
3-D temperature distributions of strip in CAL were theoretically
evaluated by using both the techniques of EBM and FEM, in which
the view factors, ferriteeaustenite phase transition, and thermal
contact conductance between strip and roll were taken into account.
The heat ux and temperatures of heating plane, ceiling, side walls,
oor and strip were obtained as well. It can be found that the crown
of roll has a signicant inuence on the transverse temperature
distribution of strip, while the phase change has remarkable inuence on the longitudinal temperature distribution of strip in HS and
CS. The numerical results obtained by both techniques were in good
agreement with the literature reported and experimental data
measured at some specic locations in factory. The strip in contact
with roll results in a remarkable temperature rise. Consequently, the
central portion of strip has the higher temperature than two sides of
strip especially in both PHS and HS. This 3-D temperature distribution of strip can be used to predict the residual stress and warpage of
strip during punching process.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the National Science Council in
Taiwan through Grant No. NSC 98-2221-E-006-043.
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Fig. 14. The history of transverse temperature distributions in CAL.

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