Development and perspectives of rolling of rib stiffened plate

Abstract

Thin-wide aluminium rib stiffened plate structure reduces the weight and provides high stiffness, which makes it in high demand in transportation vehicles, marine, and structural applications for energy saving and CO2 emission reduction. In this study, the applicability of rolling in manufacturing an integral rib stiffened plate is reviewed through analysis of different rolling processes. The effect of rolling parameters and rib geometry on the formation and quality of ribs are analysed. The analysis provides an important basis to advance the understanding of metal flow, viscoplastic deformation and roll shape design during rolling, significantly helping the design of an innovative rolling process for rib stiffened plate. In addition, geometry and rolling parameters, plate curvature, and roll pass design (RPD), that highly affect the rolling process design are discussed. This paper presents the limitations and improvements of specific shape rolling processes and preliminarily concludes that rolling could be a potential method to produce high quality thin-wide panels with high stiffeners.