Simulation of aluminum profile extrusion considering the effect of lubricant

Aluminum extrusion processes is a common method for production of prismatic aluminum profiles with identical cross-section. In extrusion process, friction is one of the most important factors and it plays a crucial role in this process. Friction affects the output profile shape, temperature distribution, extrusion load and etc. One of the best methods to control and reduce the friction between different surfaces during extrusion process is using a lubricant. The aim of this paper is studying the effect of lubricant in aluminum extrusion process of the AA6082 alloy by employing the varying friction coefficient between interfaces. For this purpose the finite element analysis has been adopted by using the commercial DEFORM 3D finite element software and in order to verify the obtained results, the experimental results which are available in the literature have been used.The results show that, the friction reduction decreases the required extrusion force and maximum temperature of work piece significantly. In addition, by reducing the amount of friction between interfaces, the more uniform velocity distribution at the output profile is obtained which leads to improvement in the output profile shape and reduction in the dead metal zones.