Interpretation of the strain state during cross-roll rolling of aluminum by means of texture analysis

Cross-roll rolling of aluminum alloy sheets was carried out in which the roll axes are tilted by ±7.5° away from the transverse direction of the rolled sample. The evolution of strain states during cross-roll rolling was studied by three-dimensional finite element method (FEM) simulations. The strain states calculated by FEM were verified by texture analysis. Cross-roll rolling was found to impose a large uniform shear strain ε˙23 in the whole sheet thickness; nevertheless, cross-roll rolling gives rise to the formation of plane strain texture plus an asymmetrical rotated cube orientation {0 1 2} 〈1 0 0〉. After recrystallization, the large shear strain ε˙23 led to a refinement of the microstructure, which may be beneficial to the formability of cross-roll rolled aluminum alloy sheet.