Deformation of Al Alloy during Integrated Extrusion and ECAP: A Simulation Research

Bulk nanomaterial have several applications in automobile, aerospace, medical and manufacturing applications. These are produced by subjecting materials to severe plastic deformation (SPD) and have widely emerged as a technique for grain refinement in Al, Cu, Ti, Mg alloys with improved mechanical properties. Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) is one such SPD technique employed to produce bulk ultra-fine grained (UFG) materials by introducing a large amount of shear strain into the materials without changing the billet shape or dimensions. FE (Finite Element) modeling of SPD processes has become an important tool for designing feasible production processes, because of its unique capability to describe the complex geometry and boundary conditions. In this proposed work, integrated SPD processes namely Extrusion + ECAP (Ex-ECAP) is proposed and the specimen is subjected to these processes in the same die set-up. The 3D finite element modeling of Al6061 was performed using metal forming software FORGE. The dies used in both the processes during the simulation of Al6061 billet include a channel angle of 900 and outer corner angle fixed at 160 with simulation performed for different plunger velocities. The simulation results depict the change in equivalent strain in the entire specimen on account of these processes. The evolution of strain at different considered cross-sections is analyzed. Also, the variation in extrusion force and energy are studied for the considered process parameters. The FE simulations greatly help in designing the dies for various experimental conditions to produce bulk nanomaterial.