A Fluid-Structure-Contact Interaction Framework for Skin-Pass Rolling

  • Billen, Moritz (RWTH Aachen University)
  • Hosters, Norbert (RWTH Aachen University)

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Skin-pass rolling is the last reduction stage of manufacturing aluminum sheeting as an intermediate product. A lubricant is used during this process to prevent adhesion and increase the lifetime of the roller. Cavities on the textured roller trap this lubricant, forcing it to take part in the forming process. This process can be modeled as a surface-coupled multi-physics problem. As the interaction between lubricant, aluminum sheet, and the contact to the roller are not negligible, the setup can be considered as a fluid-structure-contact interaction problem. In this work, we develop a staggered framework, solving the structural and fluid fields sequentially. The roller surface is considered rigid and modeled by a spline surface. In the solid domain, we use an elasto-plastic material model, and the fluid is modeled using the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. Trapped fluid pockets can cause instabilities, which are counteracted through the use of the Robin-Neumann coupling scheme [1]. As contact occurs, the topology of the fluid domain changes. The mesh is updated to reflect these changes using the surface-reconstruction virtual-region mesh update method [2]. When the contact gap closes, elements can be deactivated, leaving a one-element gap to be remeshed to retain boundary conformity. Other work requires identification and special treatment of the fluid pockets [3]. The framework presented here aims to offer a seamless transition between flow simulation in presence of rough surfaces and contact mechanics including trapped fluids. [1] T. Spenke, M. Make and N. Hosters, A Robin-Neumann scheme with quasi-Newton acceleration for partitioned fluid-structure interaction, International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 24(4), 979-997, 2023. [2] F. A. González, S. Elgeti and M. Behr, The surface-reconstruction virtual-region mesh update method for problems with topology changes, International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 24(9), 2050-2067, 2023. [3] A. G. Shvarts, J. Vignollet and V. A. Yastrebov, Computational framework for monolithic coupling for thin fluid flow in contact interfaces, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 379, 113738, 2021.