Probabilistic Model of Rough Surfaces Obtained by Electro-Erosion

Abstract

During final cold rolling of steel sheets, a given roughness is transferred from the roll to the steel strip. This printed topography is important for some physical properties of the sheet. In particular, roughness is important in contact problems and specially in drawing where the contact between the tool and the sheet is defined by the roughness. The roll is engraved using the Electric Discharge Texturing (EDT) technique. This kind of texture gives to steel plates interesting contact properties. This texture has random characteristics which could be modelled using random functions. A model based on primary functions is proposed to simulate EDT textures. The construction of the model is also based on the physical phenomenon of electro-erosion. Simulations using various parameters are performed to obtain different textures which are characterized using histograms and variograms. The parameters of the model can be correlated to industrial process parameters.