PIPages
Labs

Arif Malik

University of Texas at Dallas, TX·Engineering

Sheet and strip metal, including steel, aluminum, copper and brass, goes into cars, aircraft, ships, appliances, beverage cans, medical instruments and countless other products. It is produced in rolling mills, which squeeze metal between rollers to thin it.

Fields

Engineering

Materials Science

Physics

Topics

cold rolling

rolling mills

tandem mills

Grants
1 known grant, through Aug 2028

What they work on

  1. Develop a physics-based model that predicts which process conditions lead to 3rd octave chatter vibration during cold rolling of flat metals on multi-stand tandem mills.
  2. Identify which rolling parameter interactions reinforce or eliminate 3rd octave chatter, to guide new chatter-mitigation techniques and better rolling schedule set-ups.
  3. Use model insights, developed with metal producers and machine builders, to inform rolling mill designs that allow higher rolling speeds before chatter begins.

More about the research

In cold rolling mills, a vibration the industry calls "3rd octave chatter" sets a speed limit. Above a threshold speed, the mill shakes, which limits production and can cause severe damage. Because the physics is complex, these threshold speeds are hard to predict when designing mills or trying new alloys and rolling schedules. Much US rolling-mill design expertise has also been lost as production moved overseas.

Why it matters

Predicting and preventing chatter could let cold rolling mills run faster without damage, raising productivity for US producers of steel, aluminum and other flat metals. This could lower raw material costs for industries that rely on sheet metal, such as automotive, aerospace, packaging and appliances. It could also help mill designers and operators set up new alloys and rolling schedules with less trial and error.

Known grants

From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.

GOALI: Modeling, Prediction and Mitigation of Chatter in Cold Rolling Mills

NSF · Sep 2025 – Aug 2028

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The school

University of Texas at Dallas: 16 labs on PI Pages, $182M a year on research, 239 research doctorates a year.

More about University of Texas at Dallas

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