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Abstract
The plastic deformation of commercially pure (CP) titanium by multi-pass equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE), at medium hot-working
temperature, was simulated using finite element method. The effect of ECAE deformation was to uniformly deform the middle billet by simple
shear and to induce a side shift of un-deformed and un-moved billet-ends so as to preserve its original shape during deformation. Unlike the single
ECAE pass, where the corner gap is important, it was the repetitive billet-end side-shift of less-deformed billet-ends which are responsible for
the development of the non-uniformly deformed zone in the multi-pass ECAE processing via route A. The deformation zone was however little
affected in the multi-pass EACE processing via route C, because of the alternate sense of billet-end side-shift. The simulation well predicted the
inclination angles of elongated-grain in the multi-pass ECAE deformation.
© 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Finite element analysis; Equal channel angular extrusion; Titanium; Flow pattern; Severe plastic deformation
1. Introduction affected by the ECAE-die channel angle [5], strain rate [6],
friction [7] and back pressure [8,9].
Equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE) is widely known as In order to optimize the ECAE processing conditions and
one of the promising techniques to impose severe plastic defor- to maximize the ECAE workability, it is necessary to study
mation on bulk materials to produce ultra-fine grained materials the detailed plastic deformation behavior of ECAE processing.
[1]. The ECAE process [2,3] is to press a well-lubricated billet Due to the complexity of ECAE process, finite element method
through two crossing channels and simple shear is applied to the (FEM) has been widely used to simulate the deformation behav-
billet at the intersection of the channels. The unique advantage ior of materials and to predict the formation of flow pattern
of the technique is that the billet has approximately the same [10–16].
size and shape before and after deformation, and therefore Most of the simulation works have been however confined
repetitive extrusions of the billet are feasible to induce heavy to the single-pass of ECAE processing [10–14]. Although a few
deformation. works have been reported on the multi-pass ECAE processing
The multi-pass ECAE process can apply the strains along [15,16], these works have been confined to a special simulation-
different deformation routes by rotating the billet between die consisting of interconnected multi-channels, where a long
the successive passes and the various deformation routes can billet was forced to pass through the several die-channel inter-
produce various different billets exhibiting quite different grain sections continuously.
sizes and textures [3,4]. The ECAE deformation process is also In practice however, the multi-pass ECAE processing is
performed by repeating the extrusion through one die-channel
intersection, pass by pass in a discontinuous manner. The
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 42 869 3323; fax: +82 42 869 3310. purpose of the present study was thus, for the first time, to
E-mail address: jkpark@webmail.kaist.ac.kr (J.K. Park). simulate the plastic deformation behavior of CP-Ti during a
0921-5093/$ – see front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.msea.2006.10.068
Z.J. Zhang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 447 (2007) 134–141 135
Fig. 1. FEM simulation model of ECAE process: (a) the first pass; (b) the route A for the second pass; (c) the route C for the second pass.
real discontinuous multi-pass ECAE processing and to study in 450 ◦ C under various strain rates using ThermecMaster. These
particular the effect of deformation route on the development flow data were then input into the FE code using subroutine and
of plastic deformation pattern. were used to extract material property at this temperature and
various strain rates using extrapolation method. Fig. 2 shows
2. Simulation procedures typical flow curves measured at 450 ◦ C and compares with the
re-calculated data using subroutine. The material exhibits a typ-
FEM simulation was carried out using CAMPform-2D [17], ical strain hardening behavior under the conditions of a slow
which is a metal forming simulation program self-developed to intermediate strain rates, 0.01 to about 1 s−1 , which was a
based on the rigid thermo-viscoplastic formulation and constant typical strain rate condition for the present simulation. To study
shear friction model [13] .The simulation was performed at a the possible effect of strain hardening on the ECAE deforma-
medium hot-working temperature, 450 ◦ C under slow to inter- tion behavior, a hypothetical material showing a rigid-perfectly
mediate strain rate conditions. plastic (RPP) flow behavior was also tested for the purpose of
The 2D simulation-die was consisted of two channels, meet- comparison.
ing at an angle 2ϕ, as schematically shown in Fig. 1a. The
10 mm × 60 mm billet was divided into 1520 linear quadrilateral
elements with a total of 1632 nodes. A constant ram speed of
0.71 mm/s was used for the simulation. To realize the simulation
of various deformation routes, the die settings were designed to
use the same pressing channel but having the opposite exit chan-
nels (Fig. 1b and c). The opposite extrusion directions of billet
in Fig. 1b and c lead to 0◦ and 180◦ cyber rotations, which
correspond to routes A and C, respectively. Three different fric-
tion conditions, with friction coefficient M = 0, 0.13 or 0.5, were
chosen to simulate the cases of ideal, intermediate or very high
friction force. Two out-die-corner angles R = 0 and 5 mm, which
are equivalent to the corner angle 2Ψ = 0◦ and 36.9◦ , respec-
tively, were applied to simulate the effect of corner angle on the
deformation process of ECAE billet.
The flow curves of grade-1 commercially pure titanium (CP- Fig. 2. Flow curves of CP-Ti measured at 450 ◦ C under various strain rates. The
Ti) were obtained from the hot compression test performed at dotted lines represent the calculated data using subroutine.
136 Z.J. Zhang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 447 (2007) 134–141
formed, all the billet materials, passing through the zone, expe-
rience the same simple shear in a sense indicated by arrows.
Continuous extrusion will then produce a uniformly deformed
section BCEF by simple shear in the middle-billet (Fig. 3b).
When the extrusion is finished, the tail billet-end ABF, resem-
bling its counterpart CDE, does not pass through the deformation
zone and remains un-deformed (Fig. 3b).
After ECAE deformation, a unit element ‘abcd’ in the
middle-billet will be found in a position of Fig. 3b, where
‘bd’, which is parallel to CE, is an un-deformed plane, since
it becomes the shear plane on passing the deformation zone.
Comparison of the billet before (Fig. 3a) and after ECAE
(Fig. 3b) showed that the original billet-ends CD and AF became
Fig. 3. Geometrical analysis of shape deformation during ECAE process: (a) the billet-sides, which are actually billet surfaces, after an ECAE-
billet position before ECAE processing and (b) the billet position after ECAE passing, indicating that the billet-end side-shift from billet-end
processing. to billet-side occurs during ECAE-passing. This was because
the billets-ends were un-deformed and un-moved during ECAE
3. Results and discussion deformation, although the middle-billet was homogeneously
sheared. It is this billet-end side-shift which is responsible for
3.1. Geometrical analysis of the shape deformation of the conservation of billet shape during the multi-pass ECAE
ECAE-billet processing.
One of the chief advantages of ECAE processing is in its abil- 3.2. Simulation of deformation during a single ECAE-pass
ity to impose heavy plastic deformation on the billet through a
multi-pass ECAE processing. The multi-pass ECAE processing The simulation of materials showing an ideal, rigid-perfectly
is possible because the deformation by ECAE processing is able plastic (RPP) flow behavior (Fig. 4a) showed that the predicted
to preserve the size and shape of billet, as remarked by Bowen et flow pattern is in good agreement with the geometrical defor-
al. [7]. It is of interest to examine how the ECAE processing can mation behavior discussed in the previous section. The two
preserve the size and shape of billet during ECAE deformation billet-ends CDE and ABF maintained their triangular shapes and
(Fig. 3). were only slightly deformed. In contrast, finite element meshes
The ECAE-billet can be divided into three sections depend- in the middle section were uniformly sheared, as predicted, after
ing on the deformation pattern, the leading billet-end CDE, the passing through the deformation zone. Sharp and straight strain
middle-billet BCEF, and the tail billet-end ABF. When the billet contours localized to the channel intersection revealed that the
is pressed through the ECAE die-channel, it travels down freely deformation zone is very narrow and almost confined to the shear
until the leading billet-end touches the bottom of entrance chan- plane (Fig. 4b).
nel (Fig. 3a). Since the leading billet-end has already passed On the other hand, the ECAE-simulation of CP-Ti (Fig. 4c
through the shear plane CE, the leading billet-end CDE is hardly and d) showed distinctively different flow pattern from the ideal
deformed during the subsequent ECAE process. Further press- materials. First, the leading billet-end tended to be separated
ing generates local stresses around C and E and finally leads to from the die-surface. Second, the billet could not completely fill
a development of stable deformation zone along CE at a suf- the lower left die-corner and a gap appeared between the billet
ficiently large pressing force. If a stable deformation zone is and the die-corner. Third, the strain contours in the deformation
Fig. 4. FEM-simulated mesh deformations (a and c) and effective strain distributions (b and d) for the first ECAE pass in a 90◦ -die with the radius of out-die-corner
R = 0 mm and the friction force M = 0: (a and b) for rigid-perfectly plastic material and (c and d) for CP-Ti.
Z.J. Zhang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 447 (2007) 134–141 137
Fig. 6. Variation of the simulated flownets (a, c, e, g) and effective strains (b, d, f, h) of CP-Ti with the increasing number of ECAE pass during multi-pass ECAE
processing through route A in a 90◦ die with R = 0 mm and M = 0: (a and b) 2nd pass; (c and d) 4th pass; (e and f) 8th pass; (g and h) 16th pass. Note the end-to-side
side-shifts of two less-deformed billet-ends and their movement along the billet surfaces with the increasing number of ECAE pass.
138 Z.J. Zhang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 447 (2007) 134–141
Fig. 10. Variation of the maximum effective strain at the billet center and relative
strain deviation, i.e. the maximum strain difference normalized by the maximum
strain, with the increasing number of ECAE passes for CP-Ti through route A
in a 90◦ die with R = 0 mm and M = 0.
Table 1
Simulated inclination angle (◦ ) of elongated-grain at the various numbers of ECAE passes
Friction (M) Pass 1 Pass 2 Pass 3 Pass 4 Pass 5 Pass 6 Pass 7 Pass 8
90◦
Eq. (3) 26.57 14.04 9.46 7.12 5.71 4.76 4.09 3.57
RPP
R = 0 mma 0 25.91 13.76 9.16 6.86 5.34 4.46 3.68 3.30
Ti
R = 0 mm 0 27.16 14.00 9.33 6.79 5.61 4.62 3.98 3.32
R = 5 mm 0 27.98 14.86 9.76 7.44 5.85 4.74 4.18 3.77
0.13 27.35 14.27 9.5 7.05 – – – –
0.5 26.92 14.32 9.58 6.94 5.86 4.84 4.26 3.49
120◦
Eq. (3) 40.89 23.41 16.10 12.22 9.83 8.21 7.05 6.18
RPP
R = 0 mm 0 40.05 23.27 16.07 12.28 – – – –
Ti
R = 0 mm 0 45.08 25.16 17.35 12.97 – – – –
a Radius of out-die-corner.
that the initial leading billet-end will reach the mid-line first at 4. Conclusions
the third pass, next at 10th pass, and so on, which appeared to
be in good agreement with the simulation result of Fig. 10. The 1. 2D-FEM simulation revealed that the middle-billet is uni-
validity of Eq. (2) was also confirmed in 120◦ -die after 4 passes, formly sheared, whereas the two billet-ends, being un-
which can be seen in Fig. 12. deformed and un-moved, experienced a billet-end side-shift
to preserve the billet shape during ECAE deformation.
3.5. Inclination angle of elongated-grain 2. The uniformity of plastic deformation for a single passed
ECAE-billet of CP-Ti, at medium hot-working tempera-
Iwahashi et al. [23] analyzed geometrically how the cubic ture, was not only affected by the material property such
unit cell will be sheared with the increasing number of ECAE as work hardening property of CP-Ti but also by the pro-
passes in various deformation routes and showed that the cubic cessing parameters such as channel intersection angle, angle
element will be continuously elongated in shape and continu- of die-corner and friction force. The results were similar
ously inclined in angle towards the extrusion direction due to to those of cubic materials, simply because CP-Ti essen-
the accumulation of simple shear in route A. The direction of tially showed a typical work hardening behavior at medium
the elongated-cell (Fig. 3) can be regarded as that of elongated- hot-working temperature under low to intermediate strain
grain. The inclination angle of the elongated-grain with respect rates.
to the extrusion axis can be calculated from the geometry by 3. Multi-pass ECAE simulation of CP-Ti, at medium hot-
working temperature, through the deformation route A,
tan ϕ
β = arctan , (3) showed that a uniformly deformed zone develops first into a
2n shape of inclined six-sided polygon and later into a four-sided
where 2ϕ is the channel angle and n is the number of passes. polygon in the middle-billet before its complete disappear-
From the present ECAE-simulation results, one can easily ance. This was because the billet surfaces became increas-
observe the shearing process of unit cell in the middle-billet ingly less-deformed with the increasing ECAE-pass number,
(Fig. 6) and measure the variation of the angle β (Fig. 8) with the due to the repetitive side-shift of the less-deformed billet-
increasing number of ECAE passes. The result of this measure- ends.
ment is shown in Table 1 for the various processing conditions 4. Unlike the route A, the deformation route C led to the devel-
and compared with the ideal angle predicted by Eq. (3). The opment of stable deformation zone because of the reverse
inclination angle of the elongated-grain abruptly decreased from sense of billet-end side-shift at every other passes.
90◦ to 27.16◦ for the first pass of ECAE processing of CP-Ti 5. The inclination angles of elongated-grain, in the uniformly
in a 90◦ -die and decreased slowly with a further increase in deformed zone, predicted in the simulation for multi-pass
the pass number. The inclination angle of elongated-grain was ECAE processing, were in good agreement with those pre-
not only dependent on the channel angle but also dependent on dicted by the analysis of deformation geometry.
the processing parameters such as the radius of die-corner, fric-
tion force and material property. The inclination angle became Acknowledgement
smaller whenever the processing conditions are such that they
induce more plastic deformation. For example, the angle became Authors are grateful to the Korea Science and Engineering
smaller with the smaller channel angle and radius of die-corner Foundation for their financial support of this research through
and with the larger friction force. the grant number R01-2005-000-11247-0.
Z.J. Zhang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 447 (2007) 134–141 141
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