JMEPEG (2016) 25:188198

DOI: 10.1007/s11665-015-1845-y

ASM International
1059-9495/$19.00

Parameter Optimization During Forging Process of a

Novel High-Speed-Steel Cold Work Roll
Jing Guo, Ligang Liu, Yanliang Sun, Qiang Li, Xuejun Ren, and Qingxiang Yang
(Submitted October 22, 2014; in revised form November 28, 2015; published online December 18, 2015)
The forging of high-speed-steel (HSS) roll has always been a technical problem in manufacturing industry.
In this study, the forging process of a novel HSS cold work roll was simulated by deform-3D on the basis of
rigid-viscoplastic nite element model. The effect of heating temperature and forging speed on temperature
and stress elds during forging process was simulated too. The results show that during forging process, the
temperature of the contact region with anvils increases. The stress of the forging region increases and
distributes un-uniformly, while that of the non-forging region is almost zero. With increasing forging time,
Z load on anvil increases gradually. With increasing heating temperature or decreasing forging speed, the
temperature of the whole billet increases, while the stress and Z load on anvil decrease. In order to ensure
the high efciency and safety of the forging process, the heating temperature and the forging speed are
chosen as 1160 C and 16.667 mm/s, respectively.
Keywords

forging, modeling and simulation, steel

1. Introduction
Cold work roll is the main part of the cold rolling mill.
During cold rolling process, large contact compressive stress
and intensive friction act on the roll surface and cracks initiate
on its surface. So, it is essential for the roll with high and
uniform hardness, sufcient hardening depth, good wear
resistance, and cracking resistance (Ref 1, 2). With the
development of more variety, higher strength, and thinner
standard cold rolling products, it is signicant to develop a new
cold work roll to meet the requirement for production and
rolling mill with higher quality and performance.
The development of the cold work roll steel is characterized
by the constant improvement of alloy element Cr, from 2,
3 wt.% in the early days to 5, 8 wt.% in recent years (Ref 3, 4).
Recently, with the rapid development of rolling technology, Crseries cold work roll steel cannot meet the requirement of high
quality products gradually. The high-speed-steel (HSS) roll has
attracted attention widely by its higher hardness and red
hardness, better wear resistance, and hardenability (Ref 5-7).
However, the HSS roll employs more alloy elements such as W
and Mo, which results in the formation of coarse microstructure
and net carbides during casting process. When the roll is to be
forged, it cracks on the surface easily or even scraps nally.
In order to meet the development of current rolling technology
and achieve the forged HSS roll, a novel HSS for cold work roll
on the basis of traditional HSS roll was designed and optimized in
Jing Guo, Yanliang Sun, Qiang Li, and Qingxiang Yang, State Key
Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science & Technology, Yanshan
University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China; Ligang Liu, College of
Mechanical Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004,
China; and Xuejun Ren, School of Engineering, Liverpool John
Moores University, Liverpool L3 3AF, UK. Contact e-mail:
qxyang@ysu.edu.cn.

188Volume 25(1) January 2016

our previous work. Then the microstructures and mechanical

properties of this HSS were analyzed in detail (Ref 8-12).
However, the research on the forging and deformation behaviors
of the cold work roll costs much and takes a long time by
experimental method. Numerical simulation has become an
important method to develop the roll by its easy operation and
repeated testing, which provide reasonable technological parameter for real production and shorten production period. At present,
numerical simulation is widely used to research the die forging,
cold roll forming, and hot rolling (Ref 13-15), but the forging
process of the HSS roll is rarely reported ever before.
The hot forging of cold work roll belongs to bulk forming
problem, which is solved by rigid-viscoplastic FE model
generally (Ref 16-18). Previously, based on rigid-viscoplastic
FE model and Normalized C&L ductile fracture criterion, the
forging limit of the novel HSS roll, which is the key and rstly
considered problem in the roll manufacturing process, was
predicted to keep production running smoothly (Ref 19). After
the HSS roll is achieved forging, the optimization of technical
parameters becomes the next problem faced by technicists
during forging process. Therefore, in this work, the technical
parameters (heating temperature and forging speed) during
forging process are optimized, which can establish the foundation for the research on the forging technology and
deformation behavior, and provide new idea and theoretical
basis for the development of forged roll technology.

2. Experimental Materials and Methods

A self-designed HSS for cold work roll was used in this
work and supplied as a forged bar with diameter of 15 mm. Its
chemical composition is listed in Table 1. The micrograph of
the alloy after homogenized at 860 C for 1 h is shown in
Fig. 1. Due to the higher alloy elements in the experimental
alloy, there exist some bulk-like carbides in the grain boundaries, as shown in Fig. 1 by black arrows.
The specimen was machined into U10 9 15 mm, and the hot
compressive experiment between 900 and 1150 C and strain

Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance

Table 1 Chemical composition of the novel HSS for cold work roll (wt.%)
Element

Cr

Mo

Mn

Si

Fe

Content

1.0-1.2

9-11

2-3

1-3

1-1.5

0.3-0.5

0.3-0.5

Bal.

Fig. 1 Microstructure of the novel HSS after the heat treatment at

860 C for 1 h

rates from 0.01 to 10 s1 were carried out by Gleeble-3500

thermo-simulation machine. The microstructures of different
temperatures and strain rates were observed by optical
microscopy (OM). After calculation, the hot deformation
equation is shown:


541400
;
e_ 5:55  1023 sinh0:01057  rp 4:391 exp 
RT
Eq 1
where e_ represents the stain rate, rp is the peak stress, R is
the gas constant (R = 8.314 J/molK), T is the temperature.
In order to verify the validity of FE model, the specimen of
U10 9 15 mm was taken to simulate the hot compressive experiment of the novel HSS cold work roll according to the actual forging
process by Gleeble-3500 thermo-simulation machine. The specimen was heated up to 1120 C rstly and held for 3 min, then air
cooled for 10 s and nally compressed with stain rate of 1 s1 for
15 s. The data were collected by computer automatically during air
cooling and compression processes.

3. Simulation Methods
3.1 Establishment of FE Model
The actual forging process of the novel cold work roll was
simulated in this work. The three-dimensional models of billet,
top anvil and bottom anvil, which were drawn by PRO/E, were
imported into Deform-3D as shown in Fig. 2. The dimension of
the billet is U800 mm 9 2400 mm. The top and bottom anvils
are all V-shape with 800 mm width and 135 angle.
The material parameters of the novel HSS for cold work roll
are shown in Table 2, in which T, k, E, a, c, s, h, m, and q are
temperature, thermal conductivity, elastic modulus, linear

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Fig. 2 Simulation model of the forging process for the novel HSS
cold work roll

expansion coefcient, specic heat, emissivity, Poisson ratio,

and density of specimens, respectively.

3.2 Assumption of the Model and Equation

3.2.1 Assumption of the Model. In the simulation of
forging process, following assumptions were given:
(1)
(2)

(3)

The billet is set to be elastic-plasticity, while the anvils

are rigid. Both of them are isotropic.
The top anvil forges the billet, while the bottom anvil
does not move during forging process. The top and bottom anvils are symmetrical absolutely.
The forging process is stable and the forging speed of
the top anvil is a constant value.

3.2.2 Equations. The rigid-viscoplastic FE model is

based on the Markov variational principle. The variational
principle can be expressed as follows: among admissible
velocities that satisfy the conditions of compatibility and
incompressibility, as well as the velocity boundary condition,
the actual solution gives the following functional as a stationary
value:
p

E_eij dv 

Z
Fi ui dS;

Eq 2

SF

where E_eij is the work function; V and S are the volume

and surface area of deformed body; Fi is the surface traction;
SF is the area over which Fi act; ui is the given velocity on
Sv.
Z e_ ij
Z e_
de_ :
E_eij
r0ij d_eij
r
Eq 3
0

Volume 25(1) January 2016189

Table 2 Material parameters of the novel HSS for cold work roll
T, C
k, W/mK
E, MPa
a, 106 K1
c, J/gK
s
h, N/smmK
m
q, kg/m3

900
25.54
1,207,920
1.14 9 105
0.92190
0.6
0.02
0.3
7850

950
25.54
983,190
1.14 9 105
0.87427
0.6
0.02
0.3
7850

1000
25.54
869,706
1.14 9 105
0.40382
0.6
0.02
0.3
7850

The incompressibility constraint on admissible velocities in

Eq 1 is removed by introduction a penalty constant, k, and then
the rst-order variational of the function is
Z
Z
Z
k
edV
_eV dV 
Fi ui dS;
Eq 4
r
p
2 V
V
SF
, e, and e_ V are the effective stress, effective strain,
where r
and volume strain rate. When dp = 0, real resolution can be
obtained.
The variation and linearization treatments are employed to
get the following FE equations about velocity increment:
Su fRg;

Eq 5

where [S] is the stiffness matrix; {R} is the loading vector

summation; [Du] is incremental vector of node rate.
This linear equation is the general formula for rigidviscoplastic FE model, from which all eld tensors can be
obtained solved by Newton-Raphson iterative method.
The coupling of deformation and heat transfer is always
used to calculate the temperature distribution. Accordingly, the
rigid-viscoplastic model is coupled with a heat transfer model,
expressed by the heat balance equation:
_ qcfT_ g
kfTji g fqg

i 1; . . . ; n;

Eq 6

where k denotes the thermal conductivity, T is the temperature, q_ is the heat generation rate, q is the specic density,
and c is the specic heat.
The variational method is introduced to solve the above
equation, and the boundary conditions, such as radiation,
convection, and heat conduction, are also considered. After
discretization, the following equation is obtained:
KT  CfT_ g fQg;

Eq 7

where [K] is the total heat conduction matrix; [T] is the temperature vector of the node; fT_ gis the temperature rate vector
of the node; [C] is the total heat capacity matrix; {Q} is the
total heat ow vector.

3.3 Initial Condition and Boundary Condition

The forging process of the billet with rst pass and rst
stroke after heating in the furnace was simulated in this work.
The simulation process can be divided into two stages:
(1)

(2)

The billet was heated to 1120 C. Then it was taken out
from the furnace and put on the bottom anvil, in which,
the time was 10 s. The air temperature was selected as
20 C.
The top anvil fell down 80 mm and contacted with the
billet within 6 s, so the forging speed of the top anvil is
13.333 mm/s.

190Volume 25(1) January 2016

1050
25.54
766,250
1.14 9 105
0.20229
0.6
0.02
0.3
7850

1100
25.54
966,867
1.14 9 105
0.19316
0.6
0.02
0.3
7850

1150
25.54
822,097
1.14 9 105
0.21956
0.6
0.02
0.3
7850

4. Results and Analyses

4.1 Comparison Between Measured and Simulated Results
The air cooling and compression processes of the cylinder
specimen on the thermo-simulation machine were simulated to
verify the accuracy and feasibility of FE model. The experimental and simulated results, including the temperature and
stress on the middle surface of specimen and force of indenter
on the thermo-simulation machine, are shown in Fig. 3. From
Fig. 3(a), the simulated temperature is lower than measured
one during 10-s air cooling, but a little higher during
compression process. From Fig. 3(b), the results of the stress
eld of specimen and force of indenter are similar. However, in
the early stage of the compression, the simulated results
increase quickly and then change in a linear fashion, while the
measured results change gently. In the mid- to late-compression process, the variation trends of them are generally the
same. Above all, the simulated behaviors t well with the
experimental data.

4.2 Numerical Simulation of the Forging Process

4.2.1 Air Cooling Process. The temperature elds of
billet edge, surface and inner, which are the typical locations
during air cooling after heating, were simulated, shown in
Fig. 4. Figure 4(a) is the temperature distribution at 1/2
position of the billet after 10 s during air cooling. Three key
points are chosen from Fig. 4(a), where points A1, A2, and
A3 stand for billet edge, surface at 1/4 position, cross section
center at 1/2 position, respectively. Fig. 4(b) shows the
temperature variation curves of three points during air
cooling. From Fig. 4(b), the temperature at point A1 changes
from 1120 to 1000 C after 10 s, and temperature difference
is 120 C. The temperature at point A2 changes from 1120 to
1055 C, and temperature difference is about 65 C. The
temperature at point A3 changes a little and remains at about
1120 C. The temperature change of the billet surface has an
important inuence on the later forging process. The larger
the temperature difference is, the higher the stress is and
more easily the cracks appear when the forging speed is
same.
4.2.2 Forging Process. 4.2.2.1 Results of Temperature
Field Simulation and Analysis. The temperature distributions
of the billet at 11.5, 13, 14.5, and 16 s during forging process
are shown in Fig. 5(a)-(d), while that of the cross section 250 mm away from end face is shown in Fig. 5(e). From
Fig. 5(a), at the early stage of 11.5 s, the surface temperature is
high, and the contact area with anvil is small. From Fig. 5b, the
surface temperature decreases slightly at 13 s, while the contact
area with anvil and its temperature increase. The temperature
distribution of end face is un-uniform gradually. From

Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance

Fig. 3 Comparison between simulated and measured results of (a) temperature eld, (b) stress eld on the middle surface of specimen and (b)
force of indenter

Fig. 4

Temperature distribution (a) and curves (b) of the key points during air cooling

Fig. 5(c), the surface temperature continues to decrease at

14.5 s. The contact area with anvil and its temperature continue
to increase, and the diagonal temperature of end face changes
signicantly. From Fig. 5(d), the surface temperature decreases
continuously at 16 s. The contact area with anvil and its
temperature with un-uniform distribution increase further, and
the diagonal temperature is higher than that at any other
locations of end face. From Fig. 5(e), it also can be seen that
the inner temperature is still high.
In order to study the temperature variation at different
regions of the billet clearly, ve key points B1, B2, B3, B4, and
B5 are chosen from Fig. 5(d) and (e). Point B1 stands for the
billet edge, point B2 for the billet surface 500 mm (1/4
position) away from end face, point B3 for the contact region
with anvil 250 mm away from end face, point B4 for the verge
500 mm away from end face, and point B5 for the cross section
center 250 mm away from end face.
From Fig. 6, with increasing forging time, the temperatures at points B1 and B2 decrease, and the temperature at
point B1 is 50-60 C lower than that at point B2. However,
the temperature at point B3 increases 30 C. The reason is
that when the anvils press the billet, they do work on the

Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance

billet, which produces heat to make the temperature of the

contact surface rise. Point B4 is located at the transition
region between the billet inner and surface. The temperature
at point B4 is nearly 1120 C at the early stage of forging,
and then increases a little because the anvils do work on the
billet. As the region where point B4 belongs to exposes in
the air gradually, the temperature at point B4 decreases at
late stage by heat convection and thermal radiation. The
temperature at point B5 still remains at 1120 C, because the
forging time is only 6 s and the heat does not transfer out
yet. It also can be seen that the temperature distributes ununiformly at the end face, and the diagonal temperature
increases a little.
4.2.2.2 Results of Stress Field Simulation and Analysis. The stress distributions of the billet at 11.5, 13, 14.5, and
16 s during forging process are shown in Fig. 7. From
Fig. 7(a), at the early stage of 11.5 s, the stress is large in the
forging region and distributes un-uniformly, while that of the
contact area with anvil is smaller, and that of non-forging
region is almost zero. From Fig. 7(b), the stress at forging
region changes little at 13 s, while it expands to adjacent nonforging region gradually. The contact area with anvil increases

Volume 25(1) January 2016191

Fig. 5
cess

Temperature distribution of the billet at (a) 11.5 s, (b) 13 s, (c) 14.5 s, (d) 16 s and that of cross section at (e) 16 s during forging pro-

Fig. 6 Temperature curves of the key points during the forging

process

192Volume 25(1) January 2016

without obvious stress change, and the stress of end face

distributes un-uniformly. From Fig. 7(c), the stress at the
forging region still changes little at 14.5 s, and continues to
expand to adjacent region. The contact area with anvil also
continues to increase, and the diagonal stress of end face is
clear gradually. From Fig. 7(d), the stress distribution is
extremely un-uniform at 16 s, and the contact area with anvil
increases further. The diagonal stress of end face becomes
larger obviously with width increasing.
Six key points C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, and C6 are chosen from
Fig. 7(d), and the stress variation curves of the key points are
shown in Fig. 8. Points C1, C2 are located at forging region
and transition region on the billet edge. Points C3, C4, and C5
are located at the contact region with anvil 250 mm away from
end face, transition location and un-contact one with anvil,
respectively. Point C6 is on the verge of forging and nonforging region 500 mm away from end face. From Fig. 8,
during forging process, the stress on the billet edge is the
biggest, which causes the corner crack easily. Points C1 and C2

Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance

Fig. 7

Fig. 8

Stress distribution of the billet at (a) 11.5 s, (b) 13 s, (c) 14.5 s, (d) 16 s during forging process

Stress curves of the key points during the forging process

are located on the billet edge, while the stresses at points C1

and C2 are different. At the early forging stage, the stress at
point C1 is a little bigger than that of point C2 because of
contacting with anvil. During forging process, the stress at
point C2, which is on the transition region of pressed and nonpressed by anvil, becomes larger obviously, even exceeds that
at point C1. Point C3 does not contact with anvil, so the stress
is small at the beginning of forging. However, with the stroke at
point C5 increases, which pulls the surrounding region, the
stress at point C3 becomes larger. Point C4 is located at the
contact verge with anvil, and its stress is only lower than that at

Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance

billet edge. During forging process, the stress at point C4

becomes larger gradually, so the cracks appear in this region
easily. Point C5 contacts with anvil, so at the early stage, its
stress is larger. However, with increasing forging time, the
stress at point C5 decreases a little. Point C6 is located at the
verge between forging and non-forging regions, so the stress is
the most complicated.
Figure 9 shows the stress contribution of end face and cross
section at 16 s during the forging process. From Fig. 9(a), the
stress at end face becomes un-uniform, and the diagonal
deforms severely with shear stress. The diagonal stress and
width increases gradually. The cold work roll is broken easily
along diagonal direction to form internal longitudinal cracks
because of low high-temperature ductility, large deformation
resistance and hardening tendency. Therefore, the billet was cut
off 250 mm away from end face. From Fig. 9(b), the stress
distribution at cross section is similar to that at end face, which
is un-uniform, and the diagonal stress is the largest. However,
the stress value of the cross section is smaller than that of end
face.
4.2.2.3 Stress at Anvil and Analysis. The forging process of
the novel HSS cold work roll was carried out on 6000 t
hydraulic press. During actual forging, if the temperature is low
and the stroke is large, it can cause large stress on the hydraulic
press hammer, which can lower the service life of the hydraulic
press. Therefore, it is signicant to study Z load distribution on
anvil.
Figure 10 shows Z load on anvil at different times. During
forging process, Z load increases gradually with the maximum
of 3.17 9 107 N, which indicates that the load on the hammer is
in the safe range at 1120 C and 13.333 mm/s, which can
ensure the forging progress safely.

Volume 25(1) January 2016193

Fig. 9

Stress distribution of (a) end face and (b) cross section at 16 s during the forging process

Fig. 11 Distribution of key points during the forging process

Fig. 10

Z load of die vs. time

4.3 Optimization of Forging Technology Parameters

The billet cracks during forging process are related to
heating temperature. The higher the heating temperature is, the
more easily the top anvil presses down, while the more heat
energy the billet wastes. Meanwhile, the higher forging speed is
required to improve productivity, while it can result in the
cracks on the billet easily. In production, the billet end will be
cut off because of large deformation and cracking. Therefore, in
Fig. 11, points D1 and D2 in the billet, where effective stress is
larger and cracks most easily, are chosen as key points to
analyze the effect of heating temperature and forging speed on
the billet, then the best technology parameters can be conrmed
nally. Point D1 is located at the transition region 250 mm
away from billet end, while point D2 is located at the edge
region between forging and non-forging 500 mm away from
billet end.
4.3.1 Heating Temperature. 4.3.1.1 Effect of Heating
Temperature on Temperature Field. Figure 12 shows the effect
of heating temperature (1100, 1120, 1140, 1160 C) on the
temperatures at points D1 and D2. The forging speed is set to
be 13.333 mm/s. From Fig. 12(a), after 10 s, the temperature at
point D1 decreases about 70 C with different heating temperatures. Meanwhile, the higher heating temperature causes the

194Volume 25(1) January 2016

temperature at point D1 higher during air cooling, which is

benecial to subsequent forging process. The temperature at
point D1 decreases continuously without sudden change.
During the nal forging stage, the temperature decreases
slowly. From Fig. 12(b), the temperature at point D2 is similar
to that at point D1. However, during the late forging stage, the
region at point D2 deforms severely, which result in the
obvious temperature increasement.
4.3.1.2 Effect of Heating Temperature on Stress Field. The
effect of heating temperature (1100, 1120, 1140, 1160 C) on
the stresses of points D1 and D2 is shown in Fig. 13. From
Fig. 13(a), the stress at point D1 becomes larger during forging
process. The higher heating temperature causes the billet to
remain in higher temperature after air cooling and forging, so
that the stress at point D1 is smaller. From Fig. 13(b), the stress
at point D2 is similar to that of point D1. After forging, the
stress at point D2 is a little larger than that at point D1.
4.3.1.3 Effect of Heating Temperature on Z Load of
Anvil. Figure 14 shows the effect of heating temperature on
Z load of anvil. From Fig. 14, during forging process, the Z
load of anvil increases gradually. The higher the heating
temperature is, the smaller the Z load is.
From analysis above, the higher heating temperature causes
the billet temperature to remain at a high level after air cooling,
so that the billet stress is smaller during the forging process,

Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance

Fig. 12

Effect of different temperatures on temperature eld of (a) point D1 and (b) point D2

Fig. 13

Effect of different temperatures on stress eld of (a) point D1 and (b) point D2

Fig. 14

Effect of different temperatures on Z load of die

which results that the hydraulic press works safely. However,

according to Fe-C isopleths calculated by our group (Ref 8],
when the specimen is heated to 1180 C, it melts partially.
When the heating temperature is lower, the plasticity of the

Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance

billet is lower, so the anvil load is larger and it is difcult to

forge. The austenite temperature of the novel steel for cold
work roll used in this study is about 1100 C, while the
temperatures at points D1 and D2 decrease about 70 C from
Fig. 12. Therefore, in order to keep the surface temperature in
the range of austenite temperature, 1160 C is chosen as
heating temperature of the billet.
4.3.2 Forging Speed. 4.3.2.1 Effect of Forging Speed on
Temperature Field. Figure 15 shows the effect of forging
speed (6.667, 10, 13.333, 16.667, 20 mm/s) on the temperatures at points D1 and D2. The heat temperature is chosen as
1120 C. From Fig. 15(a), the temperature at point D1
increases with increasing forging speed. However, the temperature at point D1 with 16.667 mm/s is lower than that with
13.333 mm/s. During the late forging process, the temperature
at point D1 with different forging speeds increases a little, and
the smaller the forging speed is, the higher the temperature
increasing is. From Fig. 15(b), the temperature at point D2 is
similar to that at point D1. When the forging speed is 10 mm/s,
the temperature after forging is close to that before forging,
which is benecial to production. Comparing with the temperature at points D1, that at point D2 increases more early, and
with heating temperature decreasing, the starting time of
temperature increasing delays gradually.

Volume 25(1) January 2016195

Fig. 15

Effect of different forging speeds on temperature eld of (a) point D1 and (b) point D2

Fig. 16

Effect of different forging speeds on stress eld of (a) point D1 and (b) point D2

4.3.2.2 Effect of Forging Speed on Stress Field. The effect

of forging speed (6.667, 10, 13.333, 16.667, 20 mm/s) on the
stresses at points D1 and D2 is shown in Fig. 16. From
Fig. 16(a), at the beginning of forging, the stress at point D1 is
small with the forging speed of 6.667 and 10 mm/s. During
forging process, the stress increases obviously, then the
tendency slows down in the middle age. For the forging speed
of 13.333, 16.667, and 20 mm/s, the stress is large at the
beginning, then increases in the second step and tends to be at
curve. There is little difference between the stresses with
different forging speeds in the middle age, while the stress
values increase slightly in the end. From Fig. 16(b), the stress
at point D2 is similar to that at point D1. However, the plateau
of the stress value does not appear with higher forging speed
( 13.333 mm/s), instead, the stress increases continuously.
After forging, the stress at point D2 is a little larger than that at
point D1.
4.3.2.3 Effect of Forging Speed on Z Load of Anvil. Figure 17 shows the effect of forging speed on Z load on anvil.
From Fig. 17, during forging process, Z load on anvil increases
gradually, and with increasing forging speed, the Z load at the
same time increases too. When the forging speed is 20 mm/s, Z
load is 5.9 9 107 N in the end of the forging, which is close to
6 9 107 N (the limit load of the hydraulic press hammer).
Therefore, 16.667 mm/s is chosen as the optimized forging
speed to ensure high efciency and safety of the forging
process.

196Volume 25(1) January 2016

Fig. 17 Effect of different forging speeds on Z load of die

5. Discussion
When the forging process was simulated by rigid-viscoplastic FE model in section 4.2, 1120 C and 13.333 mm/s were
chosen as technological parameters. From point A2 in Fig. 4,

Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance

after 10-s air cooling, the surface temperature of the billet, i.e.,
the beginning temperature of forging process, decreases to
1051C. The value, which is obtained by dividing forging
speed by billet diameter, is considered to be strain rate
approximatively corresponding to the forging speed and
calculated to be 0.0167 s1. In the hot compressive experiment,
when the strain rate locates in the rage of 0.01-0.02 s1, it is
known from Table 3 that the peak stress lies between 110.7 and
120.6 MPa. During the numerical simulation, the situation of
point C4 in Fig. 4 is the most similar to the experimental
condition, and the maximum stress of point C4 is 115 MPa,
which lies in the range of actually measured peak stresses.
From Fig. 12(a), when 1100, 1120, 1140, and 1160 C are
chosen as heating temperatures, the temperature drops to 1032,
1051, 1069, and 1084 C, respectively, after air cooling, and
the maximum stresses obtained from forging process under
these temperatures are between 110 and 150 MPa shown in
Fig. 12(a). While in the hot compressive experiment, under the
condition of 1000-1100 C and 0.01-0.02 s1, the peak stress
locates in 59.6-190.2 MPa, which totally covers the simulated
results. When the heating temperature remains at 1120 C, i.e.,
the beginning temperature of forging process is 1051 C, and
6.667, 10, 13.333, 16.667, and 20 mm/s (corresponding strain
Table 3 Peak stress of the stress-strain curves for the novel HSS for cold work roll
Stain rate, s21
rp, MPa

0.02

0.01

1150 C
1100 C
1050 C
1000 C
950 C

51.6
70.5
120.6
190.2
280.4

45.3
59.6
110.7
175.2
257.5

Fig. 18

rates are 0.0008, 0.0125, 0.0167, 0.0208, and 0.025 s1) are
chosen as the forging speeds, the maximum stress after
simulation lies between 120 and 150 MPa shown in Fig. 16(a),
whereas in the hot compressive experiment at 1050 C, the
peak stress under the strain rate of 0.01-0.02 s1 lies in the
range of 110.7-120.6 MPa, which shows excellent agreement
between simulated and experimental results. Consequently, it is
relatively accurate to simulate the forging process of the novel
HSS cold work roll by rigid-viscoplastic FE model.
From section 4.3, it is known that the optimized technological parameters after simulation are 1160 C and 16.667 mm/s,
i.e., the beginning temperature of forging process is 1084 C
and strain rate is 0.0208 s1. Figure 18 shows the stress-strain
curves and corresponding microstructures with the technological parameters close to the optimized temperature and strain
rate. From Fig. 18(a), the stress-strain curves at different
temperatures and strain rates exhibit dynamic recrystallization
characteristics. With the increasing of strain rate or decreasing
of deformation temperature, the peak stress increases. Under
the condition of 1050 C and 0.02 s1 as shown in Fig. 18(b),
incomplete dynamic recrystallization occurs, and the
microstructure is composed of plenty of elongated deformed
grains and a little recrystallized grains, which shows that the
dynamic recrystallization just starts. If the roll goes on forging
under this condition, the deformation resistance will increase
due to the existence of many deformed grains and nally have a
bad effect on the subsequent forging process. From Fig. 18(c),
when the deformation temperature rises to 1100 C with strain
rate of 0.02 s1, the complete dynamic recrystallization occurs.
The deformed grains disappear completely and uniform
equiaxed recrystallized grains with straight grain boundaries
exist in the microstructure, which is benecial to forging
process. From Fig. 18(d), when the strain rate decreases to
0.01 s1 at 1100 C, a large quantity of tiny initial recrystallized grains and some deformed grains both exist in the

Stress-strain curves of the novel HSS (a) and corresponding microstructures (b)-(d)

Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance

Volume 25(1) January 2016197

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their gratitude for projects
supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China
(51205342).

References

Fig. 19

Picture of the novel HSS cold work roll after forging

microstructure, which indicates that the dynamic recrystallization has lasted for a while compared with the condition in
Fig. 18(b). The optimized technological parameters resemble
the deformation condition of 1100 C and 0.02 s1. Therefore,
it is concluded from Fig. 18 that the forging process can
proceed the most easily and safely under this condition due to
complete dynamic recrystallization.
Figure 19 is the picture of the HSS cold work rolls after
forging referring to the optimized technological parameters. In
the real forging, both ends of the roll will be further forged to
process the roll neck, which is not discussed in this work.
During forging, the whole process is smooth and safe without
cracks or roll breakage. In conclusion, the technological
parameters optimized by numerical simulation are quite
accurate.

6. Conclusion
The paper presented the simulation on the forging process of
a novel HSS cold work roll on the basis of rigid-viscoplastic FE
model. The effects of heating temperature and forging speed on
the forging process were simulated too. The conclusions are as
follows:
(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

During air cooling, the temperature of the billet edge decreases most obviously, while that of the billet inner almost remains unchanged. The temperature difference
between the billet inner and surface increases remarkably with increasing forging time.
During forging, the temperature of the contact region
with anvils increases, while that of other regions decreases continuously. The stress of the forging region increases and distributes un-uniformly, while that of the
non-forging region is almost zero. With increasing forging time, Z load on anvil increases gradually.
With increasing heating temperature or decreasing forging speed, the temperature of the billet increases, while
the stress and Z load on anvil decrease.
In order to ensure the high efciency and safety of the
forging process, the heating temperature and the forging
speed are chosen as 1160 C and 16.667 mm/s, respectively.

198Volume 25(1) January 2016

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