Numerical Treatments of Slipping/No-Slip Zones in Cold Rolling of Thin Sheets with Heavy Roll Deformation

In the thin sheet cold rolling manufacturing process, a major issue is roll elastic deformation and its impact on roll load, torque and contact stresses. As in many systems implying mechanical contact under high loading, a central part is under “sticking friction” (no slip) while both extremities do slip to accommodate the material acceleration of the rolled metal sheet. This is a crucial point for modeling of such rolling processes and the numerical treatment of contact and friction (“regularized” or not), of the transition between these zones, does have an impact on the results. Two ways to deal with it are compared (regularization of the stick/slip transition, direct imposition of a no-slip condition) and recommendations are given