Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 1996

Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 1996

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, June, 1997. / Title from PDF t.p.

Coiler drums are integral components of the Steckel mill reversing hot strip rolling process. A Steckel mill produces hot rolled strip steel from cast slabs, which are heated before being converted, via roughing, to a transfer bar, of which the thickness is subsequently reduced to the desired gauge by means of a reverse rolling process performed by the Steckel mill. Coiler drums are located inside two Steckel furnaces, which are positioned on both sides of the mill stand. As the strip thickness is reduced during each pass, the length increases. In order to obtain high rolling speeds and retain temperature, the strip is successively coiled and uncoiled, under tension, onto and from the heated coiler drums during processing. As coiler drums have a high unit cost and a significant impact on the quality of the finished product, coiler drum performance is important to Steckel mill operators. The high cost is associated with the high alloy composition of the casting and the specialised manufacturing process required for the production of coiler drums. Deterioration of the coiler drum condition over its service lifespan can adversely affect the quality of the final product, namely coiled strip. This investigation was therefore undertaken to gain insight into coiler drum failure mechanisms, which will benefit Steckel mill operators, mill suppliers and coiler drum suppliers. / Professor R.F. Laubscher

The interference-fit joint is widely used in machine design to connect two cylindrical machine elements. Its popularity comes from the simplicity of the assembly and the low cost of the production process. Even so, no study has examined the boundary non-linearities in the assembly of these joints. Moreover, the contact stresses and the stress concentration factors in interference-fit joints under torsional loads have not yet been examined in detail. In addition, the interface stresses and stress concentration factors in interference-fit joints subjected to bending loads have not been approached theoretically before. The sugar-mill roller is one of the oldest and most important examples of the interference-fit joints. The frequent fatigue failure of the sugar-mill rollers under reversed bending causes costly emergency line-shut downs. The versatility of the finite element method and the capability of the point-matching technique in handling contact problems have been combined, in the present work, to produce a surface-matching technique. It has been found that the complete-cohesion contact assumption may be acceptable for coefficients of friction ≥ 0.2, which is the case for most of the normally machined surfaces. An approach combining the semi-inverse displacement finite element method and the surface-matching technique has been developed to perform the torsional analysis. It has been found that the governing non-dimensional quantities are the ratio of the cohesion-length to the interface-length and the coefficient of friction divided by the load-level. The load-level is the ratio between the angle of twist of the shaft per unit length when the torque acts on the shaft alone and the amount of the diametral interference divided by the shaft diameter. A finite element model, using 8-noded solid elements together with linear interface elements, has been employed to locate the cohesion and slippage-zones in the sugar-mill roller under bending. The contact pressure increases along the compression side and decreases along the tension side. On the contrary, the interface shear decreases along the compression side due to bending and increases along the tension side. Subsequently, a larger slippage-length has been detected along the tension side.

Spindle failure during fast steel rolling is one of the major equipment failures encountered at Onesteel Whyalla Steelworks (WS). Spindle failure whilst infrequent has been occurring over a long period of time and is a significant cost impost in terms of replacement parts, repair and lost production. Previous attempts at mechanical analysis and spindle redesign have not rectified the problem. This thesis presents an in-depth investigation of the problem and uses a completely new approach, modeling and control, to obtain a solution to the problem.

In this study, the effect of speed was investigated on the breakage rate of UG2 platinum ore in a batch mill of 5 dm3 and 175 mm internal diameter. One size fraction method was carried out to perform the experiment. Five mono-sized fractions in the range of 1.180 mm to 0.212 mm separated by √2 series interval were prepared. The fractions were milled at different grinding times (0.5, 2, 4, 15 and 30 min) and three fractions of mill critical speed were considered (20%, 30%, and 40%). The target of critical speed below 50% was due to the need of lower energy consumption in milling processes. The selection and breakage function parameters were determined and compared for fractions of critical speed. First the grinding kinetics of the ore was determined and it was found that the material breaks in non-first order manner. Thereafter, effective mean rate of breakage was determined. It was found that the rate of breakage increased with increase of mill speed and optimum speed was not reached in the range of chosen mill speed fractions. Again the rate of breakage was plotted as a function of particle size, the optimum size was 0.8 mm when milling at 30% critical speed. As for 20% and 30% optimum size was not reached. The selection function parameters estimated at 30% critical speed were 𝑎0 = 0.04 min−1 , 𝛼 = 1.36, 𝜇 = 0.9 mm, and Λ = 3. Breakage function parameters were determined and was noticed that the material UG2 platinum ore is non-normalised, i.e. Φ value was changing from 0.25 to 0.90 depending on feed size and mill speed. The parameters 𝛽 and 𝛾 were constant at 7.3 and 1.17 respectively. / College of Science, Engineering and Technology / M. Tech. (Chemical Engineering)