Characterization of electrically-assisted micro-rolling for surface texturing using embedded sensor

Electrically-assisted micro-rolling (EAμR) takes advantage of localized heating by loading current through the deformation zone to enhance the texturing capability of Ti-6Al-4V and AA3003-H14. The challenge to achieve a desired deformation pattern is the lack of reliable models to capture the often non-uniform mechanical and thermal behaviors. In this paper, pressure distributions are measured by a custom-designed, tool-embedded sensor. Furthermore, the effects of current on texturing are first characterized using a coupled mechanical and thermal model. Comparison between modeling and experimental results confirmed the effectiveness of EAμR on texturing and the importance of multi-physics modeling.