Edge-wave buckling of rolled elastic strips: asymptotic results

The problem considered in this paper concerns the edge-wave buckling phenomenon commonly encountered in forming processes such as rolling and levelling. Due to the combined action of global tensile forces and residual stresses, the elastic strips involved in these scenarios experience a symmetric short-wave deformation pattern that tends to be confined near their long edges. We use boundary-layer techniques to provide simple estimates for the critical load and the wavelength of the buckling waves. A number of complementary asymptotic features of the marginal stability curves are also reported.