A method to analyse the rolling of strip with ribs by 3D rigid visco-plastic finite element method

A main feature of special shape strip with ribs is the local residual defor mation on a flat strip. In order to improve the accuracy of simulation, a 3 D rigid visco-plastic finite element method (FEM) which takes into account friction variation was employed in this paper. Using an extremely thin arra y of elements to replace the additional shear deformation work rate caused by the velocity discontinuity at entry to the deformation zone, the authors have demonstrated theoretically the application of this method, and then v erified it by numerical results. The results of the simulation are closer t o the measured values than those which do not consider the shear deformatio n work rate. This indicates that it is reasonable to use an extremely thin array of elements to replace the additional shear deformation work rate. (C ) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.