Siberian Federal University, Krasnoyarsk, Russia:

N. N. Dovzhenko, Professor of a Chair of Plastic Metal Working
I. N. Dovzhenko, Assistant Professor of a Chair of Plastic Metal Working
S. B. Sidelnikov, Professor, Head of a Chair of Plastic Metal Working, e-mail: sbs270359@yandex.ru

Engineering-Technological Center “RUSAL”, Krasnoyarsk, Russia:
G. V. Arkhipov, Director of a Project

In the field of aluminum production, characterized by increased power consumption, the studies, aimed at energy consumption reducing at operating electrolyzers, are actual. One area of such research is the use of steel-copper cathode rods having improved electrical and thermal conductivity as electrical conductors. Creation of production technology of large dimension bimetallic billets for cathode rods of electrolyzers (1152302500 mm) offered to use the diffusion welding of steel-copper package and its deformation processing (hot profiled rolling). Modeling of rolling was performed using the software package DEFORMTM-3D. Construction of geometrical three-dimensional models of rolls and billets was performed in the software package SolidWorks^®. In the simulation of the investigated process, diameter of rolling mill rolls was 330 mm; caliber width was 230 mm; rotational speed of rolls was 10 rpm; temperature of billets was 900 ^oС; temperature of rolls was 20 ^oС; absolute rolling reduction was 1, 2 and 3 mm; conditions of contact interaction of billet and rolls were taken on Zibel with the friction index 0.5. The number of estimated steps were equal to 1000, and the calculation step was 0.1 sec. To substantiate the technological regimes, the form changing analysis and stressed-strained state of metal during hot rolling of the large dimension steel-copper billet was performed, previously prepared by diffusion welding. Such rolling defines their disproportionate deformation and thickness variation. In the deformation center exit section, the layer relative reduction for copper layer and steel layer is 23% and 1%, respectively. This realizes a significant difference in moments on the rolls and the asymmetry in deformation zone. As a result of modeling, the necessary conditions for welding deformation are set. In this case, providing the required strength of steel-copper compounds needs the shear rates intensity (not less than 1.5 sec^–1), shear stress intensity (not less than 75 MPa), and normal stress (not less than 60 MPa) at the border of a bimetallic billet of specified sizes at hot processing temperature.

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