Experimental and numerical study of electrically-assisted micro-rolling

Electrically-assisted micro-rolling (EAμR) system equipped with surface texturing function was utilized to characterize channel forming behavior of micro-rolling based texturing process. Finite element analyses for both nonelectrically-assisted micro-rolling (NEAμR) and EAμR which accounted for joule heating were performed to verify the experiment results. Furthermore, the influences of joule heating and roll force as well as friction condition on the formed channel profiles were discussed in detail based on the simulation results. It revealed that the formed width and depth of micro-channels were increased with increasing temperature and roll force. Additionally, pile-up at channel opening increased with increasing temperature at lower roll force, however, it decreased with an increase of temperature at higher roll force. It is possible to further improve the formed micro-channel shape by selecting an appropriate combination of roll force and temperature. Moreover, increasing friction helped to achieve larger channel depth, and friction difference between roll-sheet interfaces helped to eliminate the generation of pile-up at micro-channel opening.