ARTICLE IN PRESS

International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 48 (2006) 868877

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The effect of roll and clad sheet geometry on the necking instability
during rolling of clad sheet metals
Frank Nowicke Jr., Antonios Zavaliangos, Harry C. Rogers
Department of Materials Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
Received 23 February 2005; received in revised form 12 December 2005; accepted 31 January 2006
Available online 18 April 2006

Abstract
Experimental evidence is presented showing that the rolling strain required to produce internal necking in clad sheet depends both on
the volume fraction of each constituent in the clad and the geometry of the rolls. This result was not predicted by earlier localization
analysis that approximates the stress/strain eld in rolling with that of plane strain compression. The evolution of hardness during rolling
and complementary nite element results point to redundant shearing of the soft phase as the reason for this behavior. Such redundant
shear differentially strengthens the softer component of the clad and reduces the induced tensile stress in the harder component, delaying
the localization. Therefore, unwanted strain localization in rolling of clad sheets can be delayed signicantly by the use of small radius
rolls in congurations such as a Sendzimir mill.
r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Clad sheet; Instability; Necking; Rolling; Finite element analysis

1. Introduction
Clad sheets are metallic multilayer sheets that offer
attractive properties compared with monolithic sheets in
such applications as heat exchangers (lightweight aluminum/stainless steel for protection), automobile bumper
trims (stainless steel/inexpensive low carbon steel) and
cookware (copper- or aluminum-bottomed stainless steel
for heat conductivity, corrosion and wear resistance). Clad
sheets can be fabricated by two methods: (i) adhesive
bonding and (ii) roll bonding. Roll bonding creates a new
surface area via tensile strain in the rolling direction,
allowing virgin metal to be exposed through the fractured
oxide skin. The through-thickness pressure applied by the
rolls forces the two metal surfaces to approach each other
atomically closely and simultaneously prevents oxygen
from reaching the virgin metal surfaces. In places where the
proximity of one metal to the other is on the atomic scale,
the similarity of all metallic bonds allows actual bonding
between the two metals. After the clad sheet components
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 215 895 2078; fax: +1 215 895 6760.

E-mail address: azavalia@coe.drexel.edu (A. Zavaliangos).

0020-7403/$ - see front matter r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2006.01.021

have been roll bonded, cold rolling is frequently utilized to

control size accuracy and to increase the strength of the
metals. Early studies of this problem were conducted on an
aluminum/uranium system [1]. A plastic instability, however, limits the amount of cold rolling that can be imposed
[2]. An internal neck develops in the direction transverse to
the rolling direction, and leads to surface cracking at higher
rolling strains. This phenomenon is similar to what is called
sausaging in the rolling of superconducting powder
between conducting metallic layers [3]. A similar phenomenon also occurs in thin metal lms grown on elastomer
substrates in exible electronics [4].
The problem of instability during rolling of clad metal
sheets is re-examined with some new experimental results
and an attempt to modify the applicable theory. Initially,
prior work on plastic instability in rolling is reviewed [57].
Next the results of the current study are presented. These
results examine the effect of clad geometry and process
parameters on the strain to internal necking that limits cold
rolling of the clad sheets. In particular, the effect of the
volume/thickness fraction of each material is quantied, as
well as the inuence of roll size on the strain to necking.
Earlier analysis by Semiatin and Piehler [6] does not

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F. Nowicke Jr. et al. / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 48 (2006) 868877

include such effects. Our experiments show that these

effects exist. Examination of the hardness of each phase
and nite element simulations trace a possible explanation
for these phenomena on the difference in hardening
introduced by the redundant shearing in the softer layer.
This difference in turn varies with clad geometry and roll
diameter. The results of this work may have practical
implications in the fabrication of clad sheets by suggesting
potential methods of delaying the strain localization
instability.
2. Background
In uniaxial tension the maximum load criterion predicts
a necking instability when ds=de s. For a power law
hardening material s Ken this is equivalent to n e.
Therefore, materials such as stainless steel (n 0:346) or
copper (n 0:54), with high values of n, will neck at larger
strains than either aluminum (n 0:246) or SAE 1060 steel
quenched and tempered at 1000 1F (n 0:10), with lower
values of n.
For thin sheets in tension, in addition to diffuse necking,
there exists the possibility of local necking along a narrow
band inclined at an angle with respect to the tensile axis in
the plane of the sheet. This zero strain direction allows
plane strain conditions to exist along its length, meeting the
criterion for a local neck. A power law hardening material
should neck at a strain value equal to 2n with a neck
orientation angle, l 54:71 [8].
The geometry of clad rolling is shown in Fig. 1a. To the
rst order, the stress state in rolling can be approximated
with that of plane strain compression in the through
thickness y-direction, Fig. 1b. In this case and for a
homogeneous stress state, equilibrium dictates that the
stresses in each material along the y-direction are equal,
B
sA
y sy . The rolling direction (x-direction) is free of
external forces. Therefore, the stresses in the two materials
along the rolling direction must have opposite signs and be
inversely proportional to the thickness of each material for

869

the corresponding forces to cancel each other:

B
sA
x f A sx f B 0,

(1)

where f A and f B is the volume fraction for materials A and

B. Assuming a plane strain state of stress sz sx sy =2,
and that there are no shear stresses, the magnitude of each
stress can be obtained from the yield condition:
p
1=2
2
sx
sy 2 sy
sz 2 sz
sx 2
s
p2
3
jsx
sy j

2
2Y A
2Y B
A
)sA
and sBx
sBy p ,
2
x
sy p
3
3
where Y A and Y B is the ow stress for materials A and B.
The assumption that the magnitude of the through-thickness
compressive stress is larger than any of the longitudinal
stresses and the combination of Eqs. (1) and (2), gives:

2 
B
sA
y sy
p f A Y A f B Y B ,
3

(3)

2
2
B
sA
x f B p Y A
Y B and sx f A p Y B
Y A ,
3
3
(4)
The stronger component is in tension along the rolling
direction while the weaker component is in compression. The
presence of tension in this direction leads to neck formation
[6]. Compared to the amount of work that exists for the
necking and failure in plane stress loading of sheets (e.g., [9]),
there is very little work on the localization of sheets under
plane strain conditions loaded with one negative principal
stress component. Semiatin and Piehler applied the maximum load criterion [57] along the longitudinal direction for
the harder component of the clad that is in tension:
dsA
dY A
Y B
x
sA
Y A
Y B .
x )
deA
deA
x
x

Fig. 1. (a) Clad rolling geometry and (b) equivalent plane strain compression.

(5)

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F. Nowicke Jr. et al. / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 48 (2006) 868877

Due to incompressibility of plastic deformation and the

assumption of plane strain dez 0,
B
A
B
deA
x dex
dey
dey .

(6)

Eq. (5) describes the point at which plastic instability of

the clad sheet starts. No analytical solution is possible, but it
can be shown numerically for power law hardening materials
(Y A K A enA and Y B K B enB ) that the dependence of the
localization strain eLOC on the ratio K B =K A is of the form
shown in Fig. 2. For nB 4nA , there is a value k of the ratio
K B =K A for which if:
K B =K A ok

then eLOC onA and Y B eLOC oY A eLOC ,

K B =K A 4k

then eLOC 4nB and Y B eLOC 4Y A eLOC ,

7

In other words, strain localization in the harder component

is delayed to strains larger than the necking limit of the harder
material in tension. This delay in necking was clearly shown
experimentally in Ref. [5] for stainless steel/aluminum clads.
Eq. (5) predicts that the relative amounts of the cladding and
core materials, as well as the arrangement of the layers, have
no effect on the initiation of plastic instability.
A number of papers were published by Steif [1013] on
the bifurcation analysis of rolling of clad metals. In the
earlier work attention was focused on the analysis of plane
strain compression of clad metals as an approximation to
the rolling problem. There are several important arguments
made in these papers: (a) it is claimed that a thin strong
layer shows a lower bifurcation strain than a thick one (for
the same total sheet thickness), (b) a wavelength of the
order of ve to ten times the thickness of the stiff layer is
predicted for the instability. Later, Steif attempted to
include the complex stress-state in rolling resulting from
surface friction [10]. The results of this work show that the
incorporation of shear stresses in the pre-bifurcation state,
reecting friction at the rolls, leads to significantly lower
predictions of bifurcation strains, although the same author
cautions that connecting the bifurcation analysis with
rolling is suspect as the employed stress eld does not

Fig. 2. Variation of localization strain for power law materials in a clad

conguration according to Eq. (5). For stainless steel/aluminum clad
nSS 0:348 and nAl 0:2, and k 0:5. With K SS =K Al 9, the predicted
localization strain is eLOC 0:3764nSS .

represent accurately the stresses present during rolling.

Irrespective of its accuracy, the bifurcation analysis suggests
that there are clad geometry and roll geometry effects in
localization instability during rolling of clad sheets.
Another attempt to analyze this instability was presented
in Ref. [14] where two criteria for necking (one for diffuse
and one for localized necking) were presented. The
localized necking criterion is identical to that of Ref. [5],
while the one for diffuse necking is derived on the basis of a
wrong assumption (i.e., the stress along the width of the
sheet is stationary at necking, an assumption that is valid
for plane stress but not for plane strain). In fact, in plane
strain conditions diffuse and local necking practically
coincide [8].
For completeness we note that a number of papers were
also published on asymmetric clad rolling but with no
emphasis on the instability [1517].
3. Experimental
Clad sheets of a symmetric, three layer conguration
were examined in this work. Aluminum 1145/304 stainless
steel clad sheets were selected in order to compare directly
with the results in Refs. [2,57]. The sheets were produced
by the following sequence:
(a) rolling of each layer separately to the proper prebonding thickness (typically 20% in excess of its
desired thickness in the bonded clad),
(b) surface cleaning in an acidic bath and rinsing with a
neutral solution,
(c) annealing of sheets at 320 1C,
(d) rolling of the clad with 20% reduction in thickness at
320 1C, which is in the warm working range for
aluminum, and
(e) slow cooling in a furnace to alleviate warping due to
differential cooling.
Clad strips are identied by the material in the center
and its percentage of the thickness. (20%SS Al/SS/Al
clad with 20% stainless steel core, 80%Al SS/Al/SS with
80% Al core). The 304 stainless steel/1145 aluminum roll
bonded clad sheets were obtained from Clad Metals, Inc.
of Cannonsburg, PA with nominal thickness of
3.2 mm70.1 mm, width of 51 mm70.1 mm, and length of
200 mm. Specic geometry of the sheets and mechanical
properties of each layer are shown in Table 1.
The reported microhardness for the stainless steel
corresponds to a Knoop hardness obtained with a 100 g
load for 15 s. Table 1 shows that the stainless steel in all
clads had the same initial hardness. The initial hardness of
the aluminum layer was similarly uniform. The reported
microhardness for aluminum corresponds to a Knoop
hardness obtained with a 50 g load for 15 s. Knoop
hardness was selected over Rockwell or Brinnell hardness
because of the small thickness of the specimens. The
hardness measurement for the aluminum was made on the

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Table 1
Geometry of clad sheets and mechanical properties of each component
Conguration

Total
thickness
(mm)

Stainless steel (SS) %SS

thickness (mm)

Knoop
hardness of
stainless
steel

10%SS
20%SS
30%SS
40%SS
80%SS
80%Al

3.10
3.11
3.29
3.28
3.23
3.14

0.36
0.69
1.08
1.34
2.63
0.36

334
339
328
330
342
350

11.6
22.2
32.8
41.0
81.5
23.1

Initial Knoop hardness for aluminum 25.

Mechanical properties: 304 stainless steel: sY 700 MPa, sUTS
840 MPa, % elongation 41%, n 0:3; 1145 aluminum: sY 70 MPa,
sUTS 98 MPa, % elongation 28%, n 0:2.

871

reference state in terms of friction. A rolling support device

is needed to reduce deections of the roll for high
reductions and high stainless steel percentages [18].
The rolling program consisted of a series of steps of 0.1
true strain in the through-thickness direction. After each
pass, the last inch was trimmed off of the specimen and this
segment was sectioned along the centerline for observation.
Repeated rolling of each clad sheet is used to isolate the
strain to necking. Neither the strain per pass nor the rolling
speed effects signicantly the strain to necking [18].
Trimming and beveling the edges of the clad proved the
most effective method of minimizing edge cracking during
rolling.
While no force or torque indications were available in
the rolling stand employed, the end of uniform deformation of the clad sheets is detected in two ways: (a) by
observing the evolution of the waviness of the stainless/
aluminum interface and (b) by the appearance of surface
waviness in the outer surface that corresponded the
development of internal necks.
4. Numerical simulations

Fig. 3. Micrograph indicating the initial conditions of the stainless steel/

aluminum interface. Steel in at the bottomaluminum at the top.

surface of the sheet with the long direction of the indenter

along the rolling direction. The hardness of the steel was
measured on a section normal to the rolling direction with
the long direction of the Knoop indenter parallel to the
sheet plane.
Fig. 3 is a photomicrograph of typical initial conditions
of a rolling direction through-thickness direction plane
section for the stainless steel microstructure and interface
between the stainless steel and aluminum. The rolling
direction is always depicted horizontally and the throughthickness direction is vertical. The stainless steel was etched
with oxalic acid (5% solution for 10 s) to reveal the ow
lines.
A Stanat 2 high4 high combination rolling mill was
used. The 2 high conguration for the rolling mill consists
of two driven rolls that have a 152 mm working width and
diameters of either 152, 38 or 14 mm. Prior to rolling, the
rolls were removed, and re-ground and lapped with quarter
micron diamond powder in kerosene to provide a standard

In a complementary effort to understand the effects of

specimen and roll geometry on strain localization of clad
sheets, a nite element model (FEM) of the process is
implemented in ABAQUS Standard Version 6.3 [19].
A numerical solution based on stream functions was
presented for this problem in Ref. [20]. We believe that
the FEM framework is more versatile and with fewer
approximations.
A total of 9000 plane strain linear four-noded elements
were used to model half of the specimen geometry due to
symmetry in all simulations. The same nite element mesh
was used in all simulationsa different set of elements was
selected each time to represent the various volume fractions
of the stainless steel layer. An example of the deformed
nite element mesh is shown in Fig. 4.
Friction between the roll surface and the top surface of
the clad sheet is modeled using a constant Coulomb
friction coefcient of m 0:1. To avoid mesh dependence
of the localization results, a rate dependent Mises plasticity
model with s K 0 en e_ m is selected to represent the behavior
of both stainless steel and aluminum. The rate dependence
in both cases is very small (m 0:02 for aluminum and
m 0:005 for steel, respectively) matching what is typical
for these two materials at room temperature. The value of
the parameter K0 is chosen to recover the properties of
aluminum and stainless steel shown in Table 1 at a strain
rate of 10
4 s1.
Contrary to the experimental procedure that was
performed in increments of 0.1 natural rolling strain,
rolling in the numerical simulation is performed in one step
to minimize the required CPU time. Experimental data
presented in Ref. [18] show that the rolling schedule is not a
factor in the level of rolling strain at necking. Simulations
with the smaller roll sizes are not attempted because, for

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F. Nowicke Jr. et al. / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 48 (2006) 868877

Fig. 4. Deformed nite element mesh. The details of the undeformed mesh are shown in the part of the sheet that has not entered the roll gap, while the
predicted necking is clearly shown in the exiting part of the sheet. Roll diameter is 152 mm and thickness is 3 mm in this simulation.

Fig. 5. (a) Internal necks revealed by dissolving the aluminum layer in NaOH, (b) ductile cutting mode in the neck, and (c) shear banding in a clad with SS
on the outside.

such roll sizes, signicant mesh distortion hindered

convergence of the analysis. Although explicit integration
schemes and adaptive remeshing can address such problems, these techniques bias the localization results and are
not employed here.
5. Experimental results
Fig. 5 reveals the internal necks that develop in stainless
steel after the rolling strain exceeds a critical value. The
specimen in these photographs is from a 10%SS clad sheet
rolled half way between necking and failure. The aluminum
layers were removed in concentrated NaOH. The average
spacing of necks along the rolling direction is approximately 1.4 mm and increases as the failure point is reached.
In general, two types of fracture modes are observed: (a)
ductile cutting [21] in which a crack nucleates on one side
of the neck and propagates to the other side as shown in
Fig. 5b and (b) shear banding at 451 with respect to the

rolling axis (see Fig. 5c). Ductile cutting is predominant for

the clad sheet with the stainless steel on the inside of the
clad. In this mode a crack initiates on the Al/SS interface.
A grain boundary, or a natural ow normal to the rolling
direction, located at or near the minimum neck crosssection area serves as a nucleation site. The crack
propagates so that the nal fracture surface is at a very
large angle (almost normal) to the rolling direction and the
Al/SS interface. Shear banding is predominant in clad
sheets with the stainless steel on the outside. A localized
deformation band occurs at an angle to the Al/SS interface.
The two types of fractures can be differentiated by the
direction of the ow lines close to the fracture surface. In
ductile cutting the ow lines are normal to the fracture
surface, while in shear banding, they turn to become nearly
parallel to the shear band direction. Both types of fracture
are seen, however, in each type of clad conguration.
The development of necking was monitored by microstructural examination during each pass. The maximum

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F. Nowicke Jr. et al. / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 48 (2006) 868877

Interface Waveness (microns)

70

Table 2
Through-thickness strain at necking and failure during rolling

10% SS

60

80% Al

Clad conguration

Roll diameter (mm)

20% SS

50

873

152

30% SS

40

0.57 0.72
0.780.89
1.261.40
41.60
41.60
0.740.85

10%SS
20%SS
30%SS
40%SS
80%SS
80%Al

30
20

38

22

0.680.79
0.931.00
41.19b

0.770.82
40.82b

0.920.99

10
a

0.2

0.4

0.6
0.8
Rolling Strain

1.2

First and second number indicate rolling strain at necking and failure,
respectively.
b
Edge cracks caused specimen failure without necking.
c
Did not roll due to excessive bow of the rolls.

Fig. 6. SS/Al interface waviness as a function of rolling strain for 10%SS,

20%SS, 30%SS and 80%Al clad sheets rolled with 152 mm diameter rolls.
600
10% SS

550

Knoop Hardness

amplitude of the interface waviness over a 5 mm length,

Amax, was recorded and is plotted versus rolling strain in
Fig. 6 for various clad congurations. The initial interface
was at (Fig. 3). In all cases, Amax increases with the rolling
strain. Two stages can easily be demarcated in Fig. 6 by a
sharp change in the slope of the curve corresponding to the
development of sharp internal necks. The initial stage,
which is characterized by slower growth, can be attributed
to the crystallographic nature of the interface. i.e., in a
manner analogous to the development of orange peeling on
the surface of stretched sheets. The aluminum provides
only a weak resistance to the deformation and rotation of
the stainless steel grains next to the interface. The clear
transition shown in Fig. 6 denes the necking strain.
Table 2 lists the values of externally imposed necking/
fracture strains during rolling for each clad sheets
conguration and roll diameter. The strain values correspond to macroscopic true strains, e
lnhf =hi . For all
cases, the strain to necking exceeds the value of the work
hardening exponent, n 0:3 in stainless steel, which is the
limit to uniform deformation in simple tension of axisymmetric specimens as well as the limit of localized necking in
tension of thin sheets which corresponds to 2n 0:6. The
data in Table 2 show clearly that there is a strong effect of
the amount of stainless steel present in the clad sheet upon
the strain to necking. This trend is such that the 40%SS
and 80%SS clad sheets did not neck at strains as high as
1.60. Rolling at higher strains was not pursued because the
small thickness of the sheet resulted in excessive rolling
force and torque. The 80%Al and 20%SS clad sheets have
the same amount of stainless steel, and the corresponding
strains to necking are practically identical for the 152 and
38 mm rolls. The arrangement of the layers does not
inuence the strain to necking signicantly for the
congurations examined.
Also shown in Table 2 is the signicant effect of the roll
size on the strain to necking. This trend is another effect
that was not predicted by the basic instability analysis

80% Al
20% SS

500

30% SS

450
400
350
Stainless steel layer

300

0.2

0.4
0.6
Rolling Strain

0.8

Fig. 7. Knoop hardness of stainless steel component of clad sheets as a

function of rolling strain for 10%SS, 20%SS, 30%SS and 80%Al clad
sheets rolled with 152 mm diameter rolls.

presented in Refs. [57]. Smaller rolls result in larger strains

to necking. As the size of the roll decreases the size of roll
force and torque become evident and the attendant roll
deection is the limiting factor. Recall that the bifurcation
analysis presented by Steif [10] predicts that, compared to
plane strain compression (which essentially is equivalent to
rolling with an innite size roll), the shear stresses
associated with rolling reduce the bifurcation strain, a
trend which is opposite to the one observed experimentally
here.
Fig. 7 shows the evolution of Knoop hardness in
stainless steel for various clad congurations rolled by a
152 mm diameter roll. The stainless steel hardens with
increasing rolling strain but the difference in hardening
between the various clad geometries is rather small with the
10%SS conguration exhibiting slightly lower hardness
than the other clad sheets. The corresponding results for
aluminum are shown in Fig. 8, but only for the 10%SS for
all roll sizes. For higher %SS, measuring the hardness of
the aluminum layer is difcult due to the softness of this

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874

component. Fig. 8 shows that aluminum hardens signicantly more in the smaller roll for the same rolling strain.
This trend is consistent with the idea that in smaller rolls
there is higher redundancy of deformation (i.e., deviation
from homogeneous deformation)an idea that is well
known in the deformation of single metal strips [8]. Figs. 7
and 8 indicate that (a) there are signicant differences in
level of deformation redundancy among the various clad
and roll congurations, and (b) most of this redundancy is
present in the aluminum layer. In other words, while the
rolling strain adequately denes the level of hardness in the
stainless steel for all congurations examined, the corresponding values for aluminum depend strongly on clad
sheet and roll geometry in addition to rolling strain.
6. Discussion
The experimental data presented above are not predicted
by the simple necking analysis of Refs. [57]. A number of
potential reasons for this discrepancythe effect of strain

75

Knoop Hardness

70

Aluminum layer

65
60
55
50

152 mm
38mm

45

22mm

40

0.1

0.2

0.3
0.4
0.5
Rolling Strain

0.6

0.7

0.8

Fig. 8. Microhardness of aluminum in 10%SS clad sheets versus rolling

strain, for roll sizes of 152, 38 and 22 mm diameter.

rate/temperature and the effect of the hydrostatic component of the stresscan be readily refuted. Experimental
work at different roll velocities did not result in variation of
the strain to necking [18]. This is expected because the
strain rate sensitivity of both materials at room temperature is small. No substantial temperature increase is
observed over the range of conditions used. Following
the analysis of Section 2, the hydrostatic pressure in the
harder component is given by:


YB k
2
k
1
pB p

2f B
;
k
k
3
YB
where k
; with Y B 4Y A .
YA

The hydrostatic pressure in the harder component varies

with the fraction of the two materials and their strength
ratio. Thus, hydrostatic pressure in the harder component
becomes less compressive or even tensile with increasing
fraction of hard phase. Experimental observations of
necking by Bridgman [22] showed that the hydrostatic
stress does not play a role on localizationalthough it
affects the ductility after necking. Although Bridgmans
observations were made on axisymmetric specimens we
believe that the same would be true for plane strain
specimens also.
Given that there is no reason to doubt the concept of the
maximum load criterion, the most important weakness of
this analysis is the approximation of the stress eld in
rolling by the one of plane strain compression. These two
deformation modes produce the same overall shape
change, but an additional shear deformation is present in
rolling. This is a well-known idea in deformation processing studies and is the basis for the concept of redundant
work/deformation [8]. For hardening materials and for the
same level of compressive strain in the direction normal to
the sheet plane, rolling is expected to result in a higher
hardness in the material and requires higher work than
the corresponding plane strain compression. Experimental

Total equivalent plastic strain .

1.10
Aluminum (0%SS)
1.00
0.90

10%SS
20%SS

0.80
0.70
0.60
0.50
0.00

0.20

0.40

0.60

0.80

1.00

Normalized distance from center, 2x/t

Fig. 9. Variation of equivalent plastic strain through the normalized thickness of clads with various percents of stainless steel rolled to a rolling
p strain of
0.50. The diameter of the roll is D 50t, t clad sheet thickness. The horizontal line corresponds to uniform deformation e 2eROLLING = 3. The jump
in the curve corresponds to the interface between stainless (left) and aluminum (right).

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results of Section 5 show that the majority of redundant

work is spent in the deformation of aluminum. For
example Fig. 7 shows that the hardening of stainless steel
does not vary with the amount of stainless steel in the clad.
The hardening of aluminum in a 10%SS clad sheet (Fig. 8)
clearly increases for smaller roll sizes. This trend is
conrmed by nite element simulations of clad sheet
rolling. Fig. 9 shows the predicted equivalent plastic strain
along the thickness of clad sheets with increasing percent of
stainless steel. The level of plastic deformation in aluminum increases as the percent of stainless steel increases,
while in the stainless steel the equivalent plastic strain is
approximately equal to the uniform deformation for all
clad sheet geometries.

875

For a system with nB 4nA (B SS, A aluminum) a

reduction in the ratio of strengths of stainless steel over
aluminum should result in a delay of necking as predicted
by Eq. (5) shown in Fig. 2. It is possible to modify Eq. (5)
to allow for the additional hardening in aluminumbut
the approximations are not simple. To understand further
the role of the non-uniform stress eld in rolling, we
performed a number of numerical simulations. The nite
element analysis is able to reproduce necking, as can be
seen in Fig. 10 which presents simulation results at rolling
level just before and after localization for 10%SS, 30%SS
and 40%SS. A comparison of Figs. 10a and c conrms the
results of Fig. 9 showing a higher equivalent plastic strain
in the aluminum layer. A signicant strain gradient exists

Fig. 10. Contours of equivalent plastic strain for various clad conguration at two rolling strains (one below and one above the necking strain). The
intensity of the localization depends on how much larger than the necking strain is the imposed rolling strain. Note the increasing difference between the
level of plastic strain in the two metals at higher fractions of stainless.

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F. Nowicke Jr. et al. / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 48 (2006) 868877

876

2
1.8

Experiments

1.6

Rolling Strain

1.4

Fracture

1.2
1
Necking

0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0%

20%

(a)

40%
60%
Percent SS in clad

80%

100%

1.2

Logarithmic Rolling Strain

1.15
1.1
1.05
1
0.95

for both components of the clad sheet may strengthen

differentially the two materials in the rolling direction. We
believe that this unaccounted for additional strengthening
and the uncertainty in the extrapolation of the power law
to larger strains are responsible for the observed discrepancy between the experimental results and the nite
element predictions of Fig. 11.
From a practical point of view it is clear that decreasing
roll size greatly enhances the externally imposed strain to
necking and failure. This trend indicates that a Sendzimir
type cluster mill may provide the required rigidity for the
use of a small roll to achieve the maximum increase in the
externally imposed strain to necking. Also the orientation
of the necks in Fig. 3 suggests an interesting manufacturing
technique. If the interface waviness troughs orient the same
way as the necks, then cross rolling of the specimen may
iron down the non-necked portion of the stainless steel
component of the clad sheet, which in turn may delay
necking.
Finally the effect of layer arrangement on the distribution of plastic equivalent strain can be probed by the nite
element analysis. Fig. 12a shows the distribution of plastic
equivalent strain in 10%SS versus 90%Al. In this case the
distribution of the equivalent strain in the aluminum layer
is very similar for the two clad sheets, indicating that the
necking of the two arrangements is practically identical in

0.9
0.85

0.68

0.8
0%
(b)

10%

20%
30%
Percent SS in clad

40%

50%

Fig. 11. (a) Experimental demarcation of safe/necking conditions based

on clad geometry and rolling strain (arrows indicate that no necking has
been reached at this level) and (b) corresponding results predicted by FEM
simulations.

Equivalent plastic strain

FEM simulations

0.66

10SS

0.64

90Al

0.62
0.60
0.58
0.56
0.54
0.52
0.50
0

(a)

0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Normalized distance from centerline 2x/t

1.30
30SS
70Al

1.20

Equivalent plastic strain

within this layer with the part of the material in contact

with the roll subjected to higher strains. The predicted
demarcation of necking and non-necking combinations of
clad geometry and rolling strain for the larger roll of
152 mm diameter is shown in Fig. 11b. In Fig. 11a the
experimental results are also plotted for comparison. The
delay of necking with increasing percent of the harder
component in the clad is evident in both cases but the delay
is more dramatic in the experimental observations.
One reason for this discrepancy maybe that the simple
power law does not adequately represent hardening. Recall
that the power law data are derived from a tension test that
ends at much lower strains due to necking. The power law
relationship ts the experimental data well in the range of
strains typical for a simple tension test. In the rolling of the
clad sheets, however, the strains involved are two to three
times higher than those observed in the simple tension test.
Therefore, large strain data may not be tted well by
the extrapolation of the power law. The presence of texture

1.10
1.00
0.90
0.80
0.70
0.60
0.50
0

(b)

0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Normalized distance from centerline 2x/t

Fig. 12. Effect of layer arrangement on the distribution of equivalent

plastic strain predicted by the nite element analysis: (a) 10SS versus 90Al
and (b) 30SS versus 70Al.

ARTICLE IN PRESS
F. Nowicke Jr. et al. / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 48 (2006) 868877

agreement with the experimental results (Table 1). The

comparison of 30%SS versus 70%Al (Fig. 12b), however,
shows that the equivalent plastic strain in the conguration, with the harder component in the middle, achieves
higher plastic strains in the softer component, indicating a
delay of necking with respect to the conguration with the
harder component in the outside. The results are reasonable because for low fractions of hard phase and large roll
radii the stress condition is close to that of plane strain in
which there is no redundant work and the role of the two
phases is symmetric with respect to the arrangement. As
the fraction of hard phase increases and the roll diameter
decreases the nite element analysis predicts that the
arrangement of the layers makes an important difference
in the strain to necking.
7. Conclusions
Experimental results were presented that show that the
geometry of clad sheets (the percent of the hard phase), and
roll geometry affect the rolling strain to necking. These
results cannot be predicted by the earlier analysis of
Semiatin [2], because the true strain/stress eld in rolling
deviates from that of plane strain compression. Using
hardness measurements and nite element simulations, we
show that increasing percentage of the hard phase and
smaller roll size enhance the redundant shearing in the
softer phase. This results in additional hardening in the soft
phase and a reduction of the strength differential between
the two phases, delaying necking. Although the nite
element results predict the trends, they underpredict the
effects. This can be attributed to the unaccounted for
additional strengthening due to texture development with
the uncertainty in the extrapolation of the power law to
strains beyond those achieved in a simple tension test.
The delay of instability by increasing the amount of the
harder component or by using small size rolls, can have
important practical implications because they expand the
range of processability of clad sheets. These results indicate
that when a high stiffness roll system (such as a Sendzimir
mill) is employed, the plastic instability may be completely
suppressed.
Acknowledgments
Clad sheets were kindly supplied by Clad Metals, Inc. of
Cannonsburg, PA. Special tooling necessary for this
research was supplied by the Central Machine Products
of Lonedell, Missouri. The experimental results of this
publication are the result of doctoral research for Frank
Nowicke, Jr. who wishes to acknowledge the extraordinary
nature of the assistance provided when family concerns
forced a withdrawal from school prior to nishing the

877

thesis. The authors would like to thank Mrs. Judith

Trachtman for proofreading the nal document.

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