Investigation of surface roughness of aluminum alloy sheet based on crystalline plasticity model

Friction, wear, and lubrication performances between contact surfaces are usually related to the corresponding surface roughness. A Taylor-type crystalline plasticity model, implemented into the commercial finite element analysis software, is coded as a subroutine to investigate behaviors of an aluminum alloy with a face-centered cubic (FCC) structure, in the present study. An optical microscope with an electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) technique is used to evaluate grain morphology and microtexture of a metal sheet. A plane-strain model is adopted to examine the effects of the number of element layers through the thickness and spatial distribution of crystallographic orientations on the roughness of the sheet. Surface profiles of the textured sheet, subjected to the uniaxial tensile in the longitudinal and the transverse direction, are evaluated by using a solid model. Various values of pressure are subsequently prescribed on the pre-strained sheet to explore deviations of the surface roughness. Measured grain morphology and microtexture are further implemented into the simulations here. Numerical results are also compared with the associated experimental measurements reported in the literature.