GOALI: Modeling, Prediction and Mitigation of Chatter in Cold Rolling Mills

University Of Texas At Dallas, Richardson TX

Investigators

Abstract

This Grant Opportunity for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) research project aims to generate new knowledge and simulation capability for vibration problems that can severely limit productivity in the manufacture of metal strip and sheet raw materials. These materials include steel, aluminum, copper, brass and specialty metals, and are amongst the most widely used raw materials in manufactured products. Metal strip and sheet make up major components in cars, commercial/military aircraft, ships, buildings, appliances, kitchenware, medical instruments, computers, food packaging, beverage cans, and numerous other capital & consumer goods. In the last four decades, the design and construction of rolling mills has all but vanished from the US, taking with it the intellectual capital for what was once the second most important domestic industry. At the same time, production of flat-rolled metals has been significantly offshored. As the US revitalizes core manufacturing, this research represents a path to achieving metal rolling technology far superior to foreign competition—by exploiting new simulation techniques to understand, predict, and prevent vibration problems that limit the production speeds of rolling mills. Working collaboratively with metal producers and machine builders, this project could ultimately generate billions in manufacturing revenue while decreasing raw material supply costs to numerous industries. The integrated educational goals are for engineering students to gain exposure to new scientific techniques that help explain and predict vibration, as well as to provide a broad spectrum of students with exciting opportunities for success in manufacturing careers. Cold rolling mills suffer limiting threshold speeds related to what the industry terms as the 3rd octave chatter vibration. This chatter phenomenon restricts production rates and can cause catastrophic mill damage. Due to the complex underlying physics, 3rd octave chatter threshold speeds are difficult to predict for mill design, and during production trials with new alloys or rolling schedules. The scientific goals are thus to understand and predict, via a new physics-based modeling technique: 1) process conditions that unfold and lead to 3rd octave chatter during cold rolling of flat metals on multi-stand tandem mills, and 2) the influential rolling parameter interactions that either reinforce or eliminate chatter, so as to generate fundamental insights into transformative new chatter mitigation techniques, improved rolling mill design, and superior rolling schedule set-ups, all of which could manifest in significantly greater rolling speeds before 3rd octave chatter can occur. If successful, the project will ultimately allow the resurging primary metals industries in the US to realize far greater productivities through superior chatter prevention technology. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.