Simulation study of the effect of different channel and curvature angles on the effective strain and process load in the tubular channel angular pressing (TCAP) process using a trapezoidal channel cross-section

Tubular channel angular pressing (TCAP) process is one of the new methods to produce tubes with very good mechanical and microstructural properties. The trapezoidal channel cross-section is preferred in this process due to its high strain homogeneity and low required load compared to other channel cross-sections. In this research, the TCAP process with a trapezoidal channel cross-section was modeled using different channel and curvature angles in Abaqus software and then one pass of the process was applied to annealed aluminum 6061 samples. After that, the effect of these angles on the effective strain as well as process load was shown. For validation, the results of the finite element method (FEM) were compared and analyzed with the analytical model. The results of the processed samples showed that reducing the channel and curvature angles increases the applied effective strain. By increasing the curvature angle, the strain homogeneity has increased, and as a result, the hardness and microstructure homogeneity have increased. The process load has also decreased with the increase of channel and curvature angles. Also, there was a good agreement between the FEM results and the analytical model.