Finite element method simulation of metal flow during Tubular Channel Angular Pressing (TCAP) of aluminium 7075

Abstract

Tubular Channel Angular Pressing (TCAP) is among the upcomingand highly interesting, severe plastic deformation methods (SPD).This technique is reported to be appropriate for the deformation ofvery large strains in cylindrical tubes. The tube is pressed by a topdie in a space between a mandrel and a die containing three shearzones while maintaining the same tube thickness and diameters. Toinvestigate the SPD process in tubular samples, a commerciallyavailable pure aluminium alloy (AA7075) was used to evaluate theinfluence of die geometry, coefficient of friction, pressing speed, dietemperature and tube thickness. The average grain size of about500 nm was attained from 25 μm by extensive grain refinement.The results of Finite Element (FE) indicated that an effective strain of3 was achieved by correctly choosing the input parameters. Thethickness and length of the tube processed by TCAP also exhibitedexcellent strain homogeneity. The TCAP process can impose largestrains because of having three deformation zones. Depending oninput parameters selection, this SPD method, therefore, has twomajor advantages; (i) excellent strain homogeneity and (ii) higheffective strain.