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JOURNAL OF IRON AND STEEL RESEARCH, INTERNATIONAL. 2012, 19(1): 36-40

Nonlinear Spline Finite Element Method for Ribbing of Cold-Rolled Coils

QIN Jianl,2 , ZHANG Oing-dong' , HUANG Ke-fu 2
(1. Mechanical Engineering School, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China;
2. College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China)

Abstract: The ribbing problem has serious influence on the steel product quality, which produces additional shape
waves on the surface of uncoiled steel strip on the process of curl. Nonlinear spline finite element method Cn-spline
FEM) is adopted to establish the relationship between the ribbing height and deflection of additional shape wave, for
example, post-buckling deformation. The proposed spline FEM is more effective and convenient than traditional fi-
nite element method in the buckling analysis. Using the spline FEM, the shape wave caused by the ribbing is calcu-
lated, and then the ribbing values can be obtained which are difficult to measure in practice. At the same time, the
judgment rule is also given for estimating the strip quality according to the ribbing value.
Key words: steel strip; ribbing; nonlinear spline FEM; post-buckling

In recent years, the demand for quality of the
steel strip becomes increasing with the development
of strip industry, so the strip ribbing problem
caused the shape distortion has attracted more and
more attentions from many steel manufacturers.
The so-called ribbing is the raised defect on the
surface along the longitudinal direction in the
process of coiling. The causes of ribbing focus on
the local high point (raised line) of the strip accord-
ing to the on-the-spot detail survey and investiga-
tion. Although the local high point is only slightly
thicker than the other part of that strip, the accu-
mulation of hundreds strip layers in coiling can bring
forth ribbing about 6 mm in height-'". As the exist-
ence of incoming local high points, the cold-rolled
strip thickness and in-plane stress distribution are
influenced. And sometimes the local additional
buckling waves due to the initial strain (plastic
strain) will appear on the uncoiled strips[2], which
affect the product performance seriously and leads to
product degradation.
In order to analyze the ribbing mechanism of
the coil and solve onsite problems, it is important to
measure accurately the ribbing height. To the
knowledge of the authors, there have been very few
measuring methods to be put forwards, except for
BAI Zhen-hua[2-3]. Therefore, based on the post-
buckling analysis-':' , the relation between the deflec-
tion of strip buckling wave and the ribbing height is
established, from which another method for measur-
ing and estimating the ribbing can be got.
1 Plasticization Strain Caused by Strip Coiling
There is large overall constant longitudinal ten-
sion (about 50 MPa) in strip during coiling process,
so the ribbing part of strip yields and produces plas-
tic strain EO , i. e. the initial strain in the longitudinal
direction which is calculated by:
_ 2n [ R l + 8 ( y ) ] - 2nR l 8(y)
E(Y )- (1)
2nR 1 R1
where, 8(y) is the height of ribbing over the width
of strip; and R 1 is the current radius of steel coil,
shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1 Photograph of ribbing and schematic
representation of steel coil

Foundation Item: Item Sponsored by National Natural Science Foundation of China (51075031,50675021)
Biography:QIN JianCl979-). Male, Doctor; E-mail: mechmath@126.com; Received Date: November 16, 2010
Issue 1 Nonlinear Spline Finite Element Method for Ribbing of Cold-Rolled Coils • 37 •

n+l,m+l
When the strip is uncoiled under tension, there
u(x,y)= ~ aijcI>i(x)'l'j(Y)=
is the self-equilibrated membrane stress field caused i=-l,j=-l

by the plastic strain. And when the plastic strain is (cI>0'l') • A=N • A
n+l,m+l
large enough, it triggers the local buckling of strip, v(x,y)= ~ bijcI>i(X)'l'j(Y)=
i=-I.j=-!
shown in Fig. 2.
(cI>0'l') • B=N • B
n+l.m+l
w(x,y)= ~ CijcI>i(X)'l'J(Y)=
i=-l,j=-l

(cI>0'l') • C=N' C (3)

Fig. 2 Ribbing of coil transforms into wave shape
when strip is flat under tension
where, cI>, 'l' are the B-spline function vectors; 0 is
the Kronecker product; cI>i (x), 'l'j (Y) (i = -1, 0,
+
"', n , n 1; j = - 1, 0, "', m , m +
1) are basis
functions. A, Band C are coefficient vectors.

2. 2 Governing equations of equilibrium related to

The goal of the present work is to obtain the re-
lationship between the wave deflection and the rib-
bing height.
2 Geometric Nonlinear Spline FEM
2. 1 Spline interpolation
The strip can be treated as rectangular thin
plate and the spline FEM presented by SHIH
Chung-tzel'i' is a numerical method more efficient
than traditional FEM on regular regions (rectangle
or parallelogram). In recent years, the spline FEM
was applied to the nonlinear problem such as struc-
ture buckling and elastic-plastic problem[S-8J. The
in-plane and out-of-plane displacement functions and
initial strain field are treated by spline functions.
The strip is treated as rectangular plate of
width B, length L. A Cartesian coordinate system
at the bottom of the left edge is fixed, x and yare
the in-plane coordinates with x in the longitudinal
direction, O~x~L, O~y~B. The region [0, LJ0
[0, BJ can be divided equally into nand m sections
in x direction and y direction respectively.
O=xo<"'<xn=L, xi=xo+ihx> hx=L
n
0= YO<'''<Ym =B, v. = Yo +ih y, h; =!i (2)
m
The bicubic spline function (Fig. 3) is used to
construct element interpolating function. The dis-
placement of the strip in the x (longitudinal), Y
( width) and z (transversal) direction can be ex-
pressed as follows
Fig. 3 Cubic spline function
initial strain
As a result of the classical plate theory assump-
tion, the Kirchhoff normalcy condition is incorporat-
ed, and the von Karman assumptions gives the fol-
lowing expressions for strains at general points[8 J :
{E:p} = {E: x E: y YXy} T =E:~o -E:~ +E:p?
={ axau ayav au+av}T
E:'
po ay ax
E:p? ={ ~ [~~] 2~ [~~] 2~~~~} T
a 2w a 2w a2w] T
{E:b} =[Xx Xy XXyJT= [ - ax2 - ay2 -2 axay
(4)
where, p stands for in-plane; b stands for bending
flexure; pb stands for coupling between in-plane and
out-of-plane behaviors; t stands for the total in-
plane strain, and 0 stands for the initial strain.
On the assumption that the strip is in a state of
plane stress, the stress-strain relationship at a gen-
eral point in strip becomes:
{C1p} = [C1 x C1 y C1 xy JT = [DpJ (E:~o -E:~)
{C1b}=[MxMy MXyJT=[DbJ{E:b} (5)
where, Dp is the in-plane elastic coefficient matrix;
and Db is the bending elastic coefficient matrix.
It is convenient to introduce a matrix formula-
tion for the strain field as follows
{E:p}=E:~o+E:p?-E:~=Bpo• O'p+ ~ Bp?(O'b) • O'b-E:~
{E:b}=Bb'O'b (6)
where, O'po = {A, B} T and O'b = C; B po is membrane
strain matrix; and Bp? (O'b) is the nonlinear strain
matrix which is a function of the displacement coef-
s,
ficient [8 J.
The objective of the geometric nonlinear analy-
sis is to produce a discrete series of equilibrium con-
figurations for a set of externally applied loads or
displacements. Usually an equilibrium configuration
 • 38 • Journal of Iron and Steel Research, International
cannot be found directly, so an iterative procedure
refining the solution is required. Suitable definitions
of equilibrium and incremental equilibrium are gen-
erally obtained in finite element analysis formula-
tions by invoking the principle of virtual work[8]. In
this case applied loadings do not exist after uncoil,
so the virtual work is given by
dO' • tjJ= It {ep} {ap}dxdy+ It {eb}
d T d T
The static equilibrium condition is achieved
when the function dO' • tjJ is equal to zero. Substitu-
ting Eqn. (6) into Eqn. (7), it is obtained:
tjJ{O'}=[KLJ{O'}-R=O (8)
An equivalent loading R due to the initial strain
and the nonlinear stiffness matrix can be expressed
respectively as:
R=lJ rB~o Dpe:J dxdy
Bpi u,«;
(l
~ BJo u, Bpi
It
BJo DpB pO
[KLJ = 1 dxdy
B~DpBpo Mb+ZMpI+k aO
k aO =t It {~~ ~~} [Dpe~J{ ~~ ~~} T dxdy
where, M b=BiDbB b; and MpI =B~DpBpI.
Taking the variation of Eqn. (8) with respect to
0', the total tangent stiffness matrix is obtained as
[KTJ=lJ r BJo o,»;
BJo DpBpI J dxdy
a B~ D p B po M;+M pi + ka
where the k; is related to the plane stress field.
ka=tlJ {aN aN} [apx apxy] {aN aN}T dxdy
(l ax ay apxyapy ax ay
After the procedures described above, the gov-
erning nonlinear differential equations are linearized
and discretized in the domain.
The buckling of strip (thin plate) is a class of
physically nonlinear problems in elastostatics in which a
critical point, with snapping behavior in the structural
response, occurs. At the critical point the tangent stiff-
ness matrix K T is singular, which leads to failing in
presence of bifurcation when tracing the equilibrium
solution paths. Such situations are better dealt with
by continuation techniques, of which the arc-length
method appears to be the most popular one[9-IO]. So
the pseudo-arclength method is adopted by the non-
linear spline FEM to trace the equilibrium path, mo-
nitor and pinpoint singular (critical) points, extract
buckling modes. The more related details can be
seen in Ref. [9].
Vol. 19
2. 3 Integral calculation of spline functions
For calculating the numerical integrals in non-
linear stiffness matrix efficiently, the new interpola-
tion method[8] for product of multiple spline func-
tions is adopted here. The method makes full use of
the advantages of spline function in interpolation,
which obtains the accurate results in nodes with
{ab} dxdy
small amount of calculation. And the stiffness ma-
trix is symmetric and banded, the band is equal to 3.
(7)
3 Calculated Region and Boundary Conditions
3. 1 Selection of the region's length and width
The computed region of strip ribbing is deter-
mined by the measurement result of post-buckling
wave shape. The length L is the semi-wavelength of
buckling mode. It is easy to be observed that the
width of strip B is far beyond the ribbing width b,
and the strip keep flat outside the 2 times the width
of b. So the actual width in calculation is about 3 - 5
times the ribbing width b (Fig. 4).
And according the ribbing shape, the distribu-
tion 0'(y) is set as
~ .~]
(9)
O'(y)= kCOS[
o
2 (-b<,y<'b)
(b<'1 y I <.B)
(11)
where k is magnitude of ribbing value.
y
1----...,
B
(10)
-
o L x
Shaded field-Ribbing area;
Elliptic area-Buckling wave region.
Fig. 4 Ribbing area and buckling wave region
3. 2 Boundary conditions
The boundary constrains is dealt with by adding
the energy function of Lagrange multiplier.
Simple supports at each end of strip are as-
sumed to constrain the out-of-plane displacement,
but the edge is free:
w(O,y) =0 w(L,y) =0
And to satisfy that the ends of strip are straight,
Issue 1 Nonlinear Spline Finite Element Method for Ribbing of Cold-Rolled Coils • 39 •

in-plane displacement constrain is assumed:

12
Ju(O ,y) jJy=Ju(L,y) jJy=O
These conditions are introduced to the energy 10
function by Lagrange multipliers.

4 Numerical Results and Discussions

It is assumed that the strip is isotropic and elas-
tic with Young's modulus E = 2. 0 X 10 5 MPa, Pois-
son's ratio v= O. 3. The wave deflection is small, so 2
the strip is elastic. - - L:/=1O:14
The length L = 100 mm , the width l = 200 mm o 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
and b= 60 mm. Thickness is 0.25 mm, The radius Central deflection of strip/mm
of steel coil is 2000 mrn. Fig. 6 Ribbing value with central deflection of
The region is divided into 20 nodes in the x di- strip at different L ' I
rection and 40 nodes in the y direction.
12 . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -.....

4. 1 Ribbing value and buckling wave 10

Fig. 5 presents that the relationship between
ribbing value and deflection of buckling wave with §8
Q)
::>
different thickness, from which the ribbing value
~ 6
can be predicted if the out-of-plane displacement has
been measured. At the same time the critical value ,4~=;:;;:!:::4!""or
of ribbing for the strip buckling is obtained. The
2
numerical model agrees well with observation: when
the height of ribbing is o. 5 mm , the wave deflection
is about 4. 0 mm with thickness of o. 25 mm.
o 0.05 0.15 0.25 0.35 0.45
Central deflection of strip/mm
9.------------------;;0 Fig. 7 Ribbing value with central deflection of
strip at different b
7
ing value.
From measured data[llJ in Table 1, it is observed
that when the ribbing value rises from 2 to 3 p'm for the
o. 5 mm thick strip, the strip buckling take place,
that means the critical buckling factor is 2 - 3 p.m.
The numerical result is 3.22 p'm, the error is about
10%. And for the thickness 0.6 rnm , the result is
o 0.1 0.3 0.5 0.7 3. 13 urn which is larger than the upper measured
Central deflection of strip/mm
value 3 p.m. The error is acceptable.
Fig. 5 Ribbing value with central deflection of
strip at different thicknesses Table 1 Measured ribbing value and
corresponding shape of strip
It can be seen in Fig. 5, the greater the strip Thickness/ Width/ Measured ribbing Shape of
thickness, the greater the critical buckling value, mm mm value/um strip
and the smaller the change of ribbing value, that 0.5 1016 2 Flat
0.5 1016 3 Buckling
means with the increasing of strip thickness, the
0.6 1000 2 Flat
buckling waves change more apparently.
0.6 1000 3 Buckling
Fig. 6 shows that with the buckling region in-
creases, the buckling values decrease, but the varia-
tions of deflection increase. 4. 2 Ribbing and region parameters
In Fig. 7, the width of the buckling region has Only the ribbing height above critical value can
little effect on the critical buckling value and the ribb- give rise to the buckling, so it is discussed for the
 • 40 • Journal of Iron and Steel Research, International Vol. 19

critical factor with band L next. some assumptions about the buckling wavelength
As shown in Fig. 8, the wider ribbing part of are given. The relationship between ribbing value
strip will increase the probability of wave-shaped ap- and deflection of additional shape wave is established
parently. based on these assumptions.
When band L remain unchanged, the variation The plastic strain caused by coiling progress
of l cannot cause the large change of buckling fac- leads to the self-equilibrating distributions of stress
tor, that means the ribbing is less sensitivity to the which increases with the increasing initial strain.
width of strip. As a consequence, the width of the When the initial strain reaches the critical value, the
calculation region discussed in this article is suitable buckling waves will appear on the uncoiled strip.
(Fig. 9). And the numerical results prove the fact. The spline
FEM model is developed to investigate these deform-
0.14 r - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ,
o L=O.lO at ions , which performs more favorably and efficiently
--- L=0.15
.. L=0.20 than ordinary finite element method for strip problem.
§ 0.10 6 L=0.25
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