Simulation of the Roller Straightening Process with Respect to Residual Stresses and the Curvature Trend

The roller straightening process is a common method for straightening long products like beams after rolling and cooling. This process often causes an adverse residual stress state. All previous investigations operate only with the roller adjustment as correcting variable. However, this cannot properly describe the consequences on the cross section of the beam during bending. The present paper presents a concept to consider the development of curvature during the straightening process. In finite element analyses using Abaqus/Standard a beam with a rectangular cross section and simplified material properties is modeled for a fundamental and clear demonstration. The theo-retically determined residual stress state depends on the development of curvature during straight-ening. Vice versa it is possible to design a trend of curvature with the goal of tailoring the final re-sidual stress distribution to the desired optimum. The necessary roller adjustment is found in a simulation using the Abaqus user subroutine UAMP, where the curvature is permanently tuned by controlling the roller adjustment. The residual stress state resulting from these 1D considerations (“the theoretical stress state”) is verified in a subsequent 2D analysis giving the “actual stress state”. A comparison of the theoretical and the actual residual stress state illustrates the influence of the roller contact. The concept presented in this work can be applied to complex cross sections in com-bination with realistic material properties. However, for this purpose a large amount of calculation resources due to an extensive 3D modeling are needed.