A roll-bending approach to suppress the edge cracking of silicon steel in the cold rolling process

The range of roll-bending that inhibits the edge cracking of high-silicon (3.0 wt%) steel strip during cold rolling was investigated by performing a pilot cold rolling test. In the rolling test, roll-bending was emulated by lathe-machining the work roll surface to be concave (corresponding to negative roll-bending) or convex (corresponding to positive roll-bending). Crack growth length that propagated during rolling and crack growth direction were measured. Three-dimensional finite element analysis coupled with ductile fracture criterion was conducted to predict the crack growth length and crack growth direction. The reliability of the finite element analysis was verified by comparing the predictions with measurements. A series of finite element simulations were then conducted with different levels of roll-bending, expressed as the ratio of the radius of curvature of work roll surface ( R) to its barrel length ( L).The difference between the measurements and the predictions of the crack growth length and crack growth direction was 6.5% and 8.3%, respectively, when the initial notch length was 6 mm. Even if a high reduction ratio for a given pass was applied to the silicon steel strip, edge cracking did not occur if the L/ R ratio was less than −0.15, with a negative value corresponding to a concave surface profile, representing negative bending.