A new method, the stream surface strip element method, for simulating the three-dimensional deformation of plate and strip rolling process was proposed. The rolling deformation zone was divided into a number of stream surface (curved surface) strip elements along metal flow traces, and the stream surface strip elements were mapped into the corresponding plane strip elements for analysis and computation. The longitudinal distributions of the lateral displacement and the altitudinal displacement of metal were respectively constructed to be a quartic curve and a quadratic curve, of which the lateral distributions were expressed as the third-power spline function, and the altitudinal distributions were fitted in the quadratic curve. From the flow theory of plastic mechanics, the mathematical models of the three-dimensional deformations and stresses of the deformation zone were constructed. Compared with the streamline strip element method proposed by the first author of this paper, the stream surface strip element method takes into account the uneven distributions of stresses and deformations along altitudinal direction, and realizes the precise three-dimensional analysis and computation. The simulation example of continuous hot rolled strip indicates that the method and the model accord with facts and provide a new reliable engineering-computation method for the three-dimensional mechanics simulation of plate and strip rolling process.
