Finite element simulation of liquid nitrogen temperature rolling of marine grade aluminium alloy 5754

Abstract

Now days, numerical approaches are becoming an efficient practical tool for the analysis of elastoplastic behavior of various engineering materials. Present study elaborates about the numerical investigation of liquid nitrogen temperature (LNT) plate rolling operation of marine grade aluminium alloy 5754 (AA 5754) by finite element method. To serve this purpose, commercially available ANSYS software package has been utilized to perform LNT-rolling simulation. In literature, it is well documented that LNT-rolling immensely increases mechanical strength through grain refinement technique. During rolling at liquid nitrogen temperature, the dynamic recovery process is inhibited which leads in accumulation of high rate of dislocation defects. Consequently, with due rolling these accumulated dislocations attributed towards formation of ultrafine grain (UFG) structure. The aim of this work is to formulate an efficient method to numerically investigate the deformation characteristics of AA 5754 during LNT-rolling. Geometrical and experimental parameters like roller diameters, dimensions of flat plate, roller speed, friction coefficient etc. are incorporated in the preprocessor module of ANSYS software. An optimized meshed domain is selected for simulation of 40% thickness reduction of AA 5754. The temperature effect and corresponding stress distribution in the flat plate of AA 5754 is well captured and comparative analysis with the experimental practices has been successfully carried out. Numerical results obtained in the form of uniform thickness reduction, elastoplastic stress and strain contour plots, pressure force exerted by roller etc. are in good agreement with the experimental rolling operation.