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

Subject Areas :

Ankit Sahai ¹ , Shanti S. Sharma ² , Suren N. Dwivedi ³

1 - Faculty of Engineering, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Dayalbagh, Agra, India
2 - Faculty of Engineering, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Dayalbagh, Agra, India
3 - Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Louisiana, Lafayette, USA

Received: 2021-09-09 Accepted : 2021-10-18 Published : 2021-08-01

Keywords: Nanomaterials, Severe Plastic Deformation, Finite Element Modeling, Equal-Channel Angular Pressing, Ultra-Fine Grained Material,

Abstract :

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.

References:

[1] Totten, G.E. and MacKenzie, D.S. 2003. Handbook of Aluminum. New York, USA.

[2] Polmear, I. J. 1995. Light Alloys—Metallurgy of the Light Metals, Arnold, London. 

[3] Hall, E. O. 1951. The Deformation and Ageing of Mild Steel: III. Discussion of Results. Proceedings of the Royal Society B.  64:747–53.

[4] Petch, N. J. 1953. Cleavage Strength of Polycrystals. The Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute. 174:25–28.

[5] Kawasaki, M. and Langdon, T. G. 2007. Principles of superplasticity in ultrafine-grained materials. Journal of Materials Science. 42:1782-1796.

[6] Segal, M., Reznikov, V.I., Drobyshevskiy, A.E. and Kopylov, V. I. 1981. Plastic working of metals by simple shear. Russian Metallurgy. 1:99-105.

[7] Lowe, T.  C.and Valiev, R. Z. 2000. Investigations and Applications of Severe Plastic Deformation. NATO Science Series. Springer. 

[8] Furukawa, M., Horita, Z. and Langdon, T. G. 2007. Application of Equal-Channel Angular Pressing to Aluminum and Copper Single Crystals. Materials Science Forum. 539-543: 2853-2858.

[9] Langdon, T.G. 2007. The Principles of Grain Refinement in Equal-Channel Angular Pressing. Materials Science and Engineering: A. 462:3-11.

[10] Langdon, T G. 2007. Ultrafine-Grained Materials: a Personal Perspective. Journal of Materials Research. 98: 251-254.

[11] Valiev, R. Z., and Langdon, T. G. 2011. Achieving Exceptional Grain Refinement through Severe Plastic Deformation: New Approaches for Improving the Processing

Technology. Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A. 42: 2942-2951.

[12] Langdon, T. G. 2007. The processing of ultrafine-grained materials through the application of severe plastic deformation. Journal of Materials Science. 42: 3388–3397.

[13] Valiev, R.Z., Islamgaliev, R.K. and Alexandrov, I.V. 2005. Bulk Nanostructured Materials from Severe Plastic Deformation. Progress in Materials Science. 45:103–189.

[14] Kim, H. S. and Estrin, Y. 2005. Micro structural Modeling of Equal Channel Angular Pressing for Producing Ultra Fine Grained Materials. Materials Science and Engineering: A. 410: 285-289.

[15] Langdon, T. G. The impact of Bulk Nanostructured Materials in Modern Reasearch. 2010. Reviews on Advanced Materials Science. 25:11-15.

[16] Zhilyaev, A. P. 2001. Microhardness and microstructure evolution in pure nickel during high pressure torsion. Scripta Materialia. 44: 2753-2758.

[17] Orlov, D., Beygelzimer, Y., Varyukhin, V., Synkov, S., Tsuji, N. and Horita, Z. Microstructure evolution in pure AI processed with twist extrusion. 2009. Journal of Materials Processing Technology.  50: 96-100.

[18] Sabirov, I., Murashkin, M. Yu. and Valiev, R. Z. 2013. Nanostructured aluminium alloys produced by severe plastic deformation: New horizons in development. Materials Science and Engineering: A. 560:1-24.

[19] Suo, T., Yulong Li, Deng, Q. and Liu, Y. 2007. Optimal pressing route for continued equal channel angular pressing by finite element analysis. Materials Science and Engineering: A. 466: 166-171.

[20] Basavaraj Patil, V., Chakkingal, U. and Prasanna Kumar, T. S. 2009.Study of channel angle influence on material flow and strain inhomogeneity in equal channel angular pressing using 3D finite element simulation. Journal of Materials Processing Technology. 209: 89-95.

[21] HansRaj, K., Sharma, R. S., Sahai, A. and Sharma, S. 2011. Finite Element Simulation of Twist Extrusion on ECAPed Al6061 Specimen. AIP Conference Proceedings. 1315(507):507-512.

[22] Xu, S., Zhao, G., Luan, Y. and Guan, Y. 2006. Numerical studies on processing routes and deformation mechanism of multi-pass equal channel angular pressing processes. Journal of Materials Processing Technology. 176:251-259.

[23] Jiang, H., Fan, Z. and Xie, C. 2008. 3D finite element simulation of deformation behavior of CP-Ti and working load during multi-pass equal channel angular extrusion. Materials Science and Engineering: A. 485:409-414.

[24] HansRaj, K., Sharma, R. S., Sahai, A., Gupta, N.K. 2013. Different die designs for processing of Al Alloys: FEM Study. Proceedings of Indian National Science Academy. 79(4): 829-836.

[25] Nagasekhar, A. V., Yoon, S. C., Tick-Hon, Y. and Kim, H S. 2009. An experimental verification of the finite element modelling of equal channel angular pressing. Computational Materials Science. 46:347-351.

[26] Balasundar, I. and Raghu, T. 2010. Effect of friction model in numerical analysis of equal channel angular pressing process. Materials & Design. 31:449-457.

[27] Sabirov, I., Perez-Prado, M. T., Murashkin, M., Molina-Aldaguia, J. M., Bobruk, E. V., Yunusova, N. F. and Valiev, R. Z. 2010. Application of Equal Channel Angular Pressing with parallel channels for grain refinement in aluminium alloys and its effect on deformation behaviour. International Journal of Material Forming. 3:411-414.

[28] Moradi, M., Nili-Ahmadabadi, M., Heidarian, B. 2009. Improvement of mechanical properties of Al alloy processed by ECAP with different hest treatments. International Journal of Material Forming. 2:85-88.

[29] Shunqi Wang, Wei Liang, Yu Wang, Liping Bian, Kehua C. 2009. A modified die for equal channel angular pressing. Journal of Materials Processing Technology. 209:3182-3186.

[30] Segal, V. M. 1974. Methods of Stress- Strain Analysis in Metal forming Sc.D. Thesis, Minsk.

[31] Forge v2009 3D forging datafile, FORGE 2009. France: Transvalor Inc.