The grain statistics effect was investigated through asymmetric rolling of pure copper foil by a realistic polycrystalline aggregates model and crystal plasticity element finite model.A polycrystalline aggregate model was generated and a crystal plasticity-based finite element model was developed for each grain and the specimen as a whole.The crystal plasticity model itself is rate dependent and accounts for local dissipative hardening effects and the original orientation of each grain was generated based on the orientation distribution function（ODF）.The deformation behaviors,including inhomogeneous material flow,decrease of contact press and roll force with the increase of grain size for the constant size of specimens,were studied.It is revealed that when the specimens are composed of only a few grains across thickness,the grains with different sizes,shapes and orientations are unevenly distributed in the specimen and each grain plays a significant role in micro-scale plastic deformation and leads to inhomogeneous deformation and the scatter of experimental and simulation results.The slip system activity was examined and the predicted results are consistent with the surface layer model.The slip band is strictly influenced by the misorientation of neighbor grain with consideration of slip system activity.Furthermore,it is found that the decrease of roll force and the most active of slip system in surface grains are caused by the increase of free surface grain effect when the grain size is increased.The results of the physical experiment and simulation provide a basic understanding of micro-scaled plastic deformation behavior in asymmetric foil rolling.
A novel approach is proposed for computing the minimum thickness of a metal foil that can be achieved by asymmetric rolling using rolls with identical diameter. This approach is based on simultaneously solving Tselikov equation for the rolling pressure and the modified Hitchcock equation for the roller flattening. To minimize the effect of the elastic deformation on the equal flow per second during the ultrathin foil rolling process, the law of conservation of mass was employed to compute the proportions of the forward slip, backward slip, and the cross shear zones in the contact arc, and then a formula was derived for computing the minimum thickness for asymmetric rolling. Experiment was conducted to find the foil minimum thickness for 304 steel by asymmetric rolling under the asymmetry ratios of 1.05, 1.15 and 1.30. The experimental results are in good agreement with the calculated ones. It was validated that the proposed formula can be used to calculate the foil minimum thickness under the asymmetric rolling condition.
