FEM Simulation of Influence of Asymmetric Cold Rolling on Through-Thickness Strain Gradient in Low-Carbon Steel Sheets

Grain refinement by severe plastic deformation can make conventional metallic materials several times stronger, but it leads to dramatic loss of their ductility. Gradient structure through the thickness of processed material represents a new strategy for producing a superior combination of high strength and good ductility. In gradient metallic materials the grain size increases gradually from nanoscale at the surface to coarse-grained in the core. Strain gradient can be considered as a mechanism of creating of such microstructures. Providing of predetermined strain gradient in the metallic materials can be achieved by asymmetric rolling (AR), when circumferential speeds of the top and bottom work rolls are different. Since the AR is a continuous process, it has great potential for industrial production of large-scaled sheets. Searching the optimal process parameters which can provide special strain gradients through sheet thickness is very important. This paper presents the distributions of the effective strain through sheet thickness of low-carbon steel AISI 1015 processed by a single-pass AR. Influence of process parameters was investigated by the finite element method with using software DEFORM 2D. Extremely high strain gradient e ≈ 4...8 through sheet thickness during a single-pass AR was found. FE analysis of the deformation characteristics, presented in this study, can be used for optimization of the AR process as a method of fabrication of metallic materials with gradient microstructures.