ALTERNATIVE STUDY OF A BEVEL PUNCH-ASSISTED ECAE SCHEME

Abstract

It is a common practice in pressure forming to make an Equal Channel Angular Extrusion (ECAE) of a workpiece through a die with channel intersection angle 2θ = 90° using a standard punch of brick or cylindrical shape with 2θ0 = 90°. However Nejadseyfi et al (2015) have applied a beveled 2θ0-punch to the process of ECAE through a standard angular die of Segal geometry with 2θ = 90° and 2θ0 ≠ 2θ. The scope of the article is focused on an alternative numerical study of Nejadseyfi-ECAE-Scheme using techniques of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). A finite-difference method was applied to the numerical solution of the boundary value problem for the Navier-Stokes equations in the form of a vorticity transfer equation. The complex of 2D plots for CFD-derived fields of flow lines and flow velocities and 3D plots for spatial distributions of flow velocities and tangential stresses were firstly derived for Nejadseyfi-ECAE-Scheme during viscous flow of polymer workpiece models through angular die with 2θ = 90° for the different punch inclination angles 30° ≤ 2θ0 ≤ 150°. It was found that Nejadseyfi-ECAE-Scheme provides enhancement of the rotary modes of intensive deformations during ECAE. Results provide visualization of velocity gradients and macroscopic rotation and the illustration of Nejadseyfi et al’s ideas from an alternative CFD-based viewpoint.