Measurement and Quantification of Surface Roughness

The development of surface roughness during underlying bulk deformation is of critical importance to some metalforming industries such as beverage can and automobile manufacturers. This work is investigating the correlation between surface roughness and texture evolution within the material. The first phase of this work has concentrated on the measurement of surface roughness in compression specimens; various approaches to identifying meaningful metrics to quantify this roughness; and the documentation of the deformation path and texture evolution during the process. In identifying an appropriate metric for surface roughness, the work has focused on the use of fractals, standard statistical measures, and power spectrums. Each of these is evaluated for use in this type of study as it will be necessary in the near future to have a reliable method of comparing the experimental results to computer modeling for surface roughness. In the second phase of this work, polycrystal plasticity models will be used to track both texture evolution and the development of surface roughness during the deformation process. The computational results will be closely compared to the experimental results presented here.