Materials Science and Engineering A 489 (2008) 363372

The role of the friction during the equal channel angular pressing of an IF-steel billet
N. Medeiros, J.F.C. Lins , L.P. Moreira, J.P. Gouv a e
Programa de P s-gradua ao em Engenharia Metal rgica, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Avenida dos o c u Trabalhadores 420, Volta Redonda, RJ 27255-125, Brazil Received 23 August 2007; received in revised form 14 December 2007; accepted 2 January 2008

Abstract It is well known that high levels of friction induce adherence effects in materials processed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) promoting some degree of heterogeneity along the deformation zone. In the present paper, the role of the friction in relation of die geometry considering frictionless, ideal lubrication and severe friction conditions of an interstitial free (IF) steel deformed by ECAP technique using plane strain nite element models was investigated in details. The analysis of adherence at the billetdie contact region during only one pass of deformation was carried out in a quasi-static form at room temperature. Independent of the die channels intersection angle (90 or 120 ) analyzed an adherence phenomenon was observed under determined friction conditions. It can be concluded that it is necessary to establish an upper limit to the friction coefcient in order to avoid the adherence effect in two-dimensional nite element simulations. 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Equal channel angular pressing; Friction; Finite element method; Interstitial free steel

1. Introduction ECAP is nowadays considered as one of the most promising severe plastic deformation (SPD) technique that can be appropriated to produce ultrane-grained materials at industrial scale [1,2]. This technique is dened as a straightforward operation that a well-lubricated billet is forced to pass into a die with two channels of identical cross-sections. The microstructure of the material is rened by the action of simple shear imposed at the channels intersection. It is well known that the shear stress yield and the friction conditions play an important role on mechanical properties of the deformed material [35]. In this sense, the theoretical experimental works available in the literature [6,7] have been reported the existence of a macroscopic relation between the material ow and the friction during ECAP multi-pass processing. The numerical simulation of ECAP has been extensively used to predict the pressing loads and the effective plastic strain levels
Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 24 3344 3012; fax: +55 24 3344 3029. E-mail addresses: neil@metal.eeimvr.uff.br (N. Medeiros), jfclins@pq.cnpq.br (J.F.C. Lins). 0921-5093/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.msea.2008.01.011

induced in several materials during the deformation with the aid of nite element method (FEM) [813]. One of the rst numerical works that reports the sensitivity of this SPD technique in relation of the friction conditions was done by Semiatin et al. [14]. In this work, the authors reported that an uniform effective plastic strain zone placed at the middle portions of the deformed billet could be affected directly by strain homogeneity. The aim of the present work was to investigate the appearance of adherence at the billetdie contact regions during the deformation via ECAP of an interstitial free (IF) steel billet using a plane strain FEM models. The models were developed assuming frictionless, ideal lubrication and severe friction conditions at the billetdie contact region considering four distinct friction coefcient () values of 0, 0.05, 0.10 and 0.20, respectively. The simulations were carried out using two distinct situations of the die channels intersection angle (), 90 and 120 , respectively. 2. The nite element analysis The simulation of the pressing of an IF-steel billet was done isothermally at room temperature. The numerical simulations were performed quasi-statically using a commercial nite element code (ANSYS 8.1).

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2.1. Modeling of the die The outer intersection angle ( ) of the die was assumed to be zero. In addition, each modeling of the die was considered as rigid-elastic piece which mechanical properties employed referred to an H13 tool-steel with the Young modulus (E) equal to 200 GPa and the Poissons ratio () about 0.3. In both models, incompressible 2D nite elements were employed assuming a plane strain condition. The die geometries used in the simulations are shown in Fig. 1, where the presence of a small llet radius of 1.5 mm placed at the inner channels intersection can be noted. Also, in all the cases, the channels have square cross-sections with 10 mm of side. The literature reports that the introduction of a small inner llet radius in the die geometry can avoid the problem of divergence in ECAP simulation [15,21,22]. Also, the value used in the present work to the inner ller radius maintains the character of deformation by simple shear associated to the ECAP technique, once the limits suggested by Rosochowski and Olejnik [23] are taking into account. 2.2. Modeling of the billet The billet geometry adopted in each model was a twodimensional (50 mm 9.8 mm) one with a unitary thickness since a plane-strain condition was assumed. The IF-steel was

considered as an isotropic elasticplastic material which the elastic properties employed were E = 195 GPa and = 0.29; whereas, the plasticity is dened by the von Mises or J2 associated ow rule. In relation of the hardening behavior, the experimental uniaxial stressstrain data was adjusted by means of the Swift model [16], providing the plastic parameters presented as follows [17]: eq = 544.96 (0.004852 + eq )0.235 (1)

where eq is the von Mises stress obtained from the effective plastic strain eq . In relation of the billet mesh, it was described by the same type of nite elements employed in the die modeling. For the billet geometry model, 4590 2D plane strain elements were introduced. 2.3. Loadings and billetdie contact A displacement boundary condition was imposed to the top line of the billet. In order to assure the quadratic convergence of the NewtonRaphson method used in the code, the compressive displacements imposed on the billet top region in the vertical direction were xed in increments of 0.10 mm up to a total displacement of 45 mm.

Fig. 1. Schematic diagrams of the two-dimensional ECAP die FEM modeling showing: (a) intersection angle equal to 90 ; (b) intersection angle equal to 120 ; (c) contact region for equal to 90 ; (d) contact region for equal to 120 .

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Concerning the friction in the billetdie interface, the friction coefcient () values of 0, 0.05, 0.1 and 0.2 were attributed for the models. To represent the friction behavior as a consequence of the shear stress and the contact pressure, the generalized Coulombs law was used. It is well known that this law states proportionality between shear yield stress and the contact pressure due to the presence of the friction. Specically in the ANSYS code, this relation is veried by means of von Mises yield criterion corrected to the simple shear condition and is given by Y MAX = 3 (2)

where MAX and Y are the yield stresses in pure shear and uniaxial tension, respectively. Also, denotes the static friction coefcient. Thus, to stress values lesser than MAX , sliding of the workpiece is observed and to higher or equal values of MAX , one should observe an adherence condition like a weld. A exible contact between workpiece and tool was employed. The contact regions assumed in the present work are represented in Fig. 1 by the lines placed at the billetdie interfaces. The contact status was updated after each load step to avoid inaccurate results. In addition, the contact algorithm was described by the augmented Lagrangian method employed that permits a small amount of slip under sticking friction conditions. This method enables the material ow toward to the second channel. 2.4. Friction and effective plastic strain curves The Coulombs friction curves were obtained by means of the mapping of the contact pressure and shear stresses in function of the billet displacement and the friction conditions. The mapping was done in the most external nodes at the two billet sides. Fig. 2a shows the left side of the billet that comprehends both left-hand height and bottom and, the respective right side that was composed by the right-hand height. Fig. 2b shows the nodes conguration used to evaluate the appearance of adherence during the deformation process. In the billet left and right sides were mapped the displacements corresponding to the loading direction (negative y-axis). The nodal displacements along the

Fig. 3. Effective plastic strain path used in the nodal mapping corresponding to the deformed geometry for: (a) die channels intersected at 90 ; (b) die channels intersected at 120 .

billet bottom side in the direction of the second channel (positive x-axis) were also evaluated. The effective plastic strain curves were obtained by a mapping of the nodal values in function of the friction conditions. Nevertheless, the procedure adopted consisted in the choice of the strain paths that was dened by two nodes placed in the middle-portion of the billet, in the vertical and horizontal directions. As well known, the middle-portion of the deformed billet contains the uniform deformation zone that exhibits the improved mechanical properties. Thus, regarding the nal deformed geometry of the billet, the effective plastic strain curves were carried out along the respective deformation zones from the beginning until the end, in intervals about 25% (Fig. 3). 3. Results and discussion 3.1. Shear resistance as function of the -value Fig. 4 presents the numerical predictions for the friction stress and the contact pressure as a function of the -value obtained for = 90 from the most external nodes located at the billet left and right sides. An inversion of the friction stresses sign, which can be attributed to the passage of the billet towards to the second channel and associated to the simple shear, was observed. The friction stress and the subsequent contact pressure increase with the friction coefcient. In particular, when is equal to 0.20, an adherence or sticking friction condition at the billet left side for displacements higher than 10 mm was detected. In this case, the friction conditions were sufciently huge to permit that the material achieved its shear yield stress about 90 MPa (see the left-side of Fig. 4c). In addition, the plots corresponding to left side (Uy) showed dispersed results for 1 mm of displacement. This behavior can be associated to abrupt increasing in both contact pressure and friction stress. For die geometries in which the channels are intersected at 90 , the billet initially under-

Fig. 2. (a) Schematic drawing of the billet sides used in the determination of the Coulomb friction curves. (b) Nodes used in the mapping of displacement, contact pressure and friction stress along the simulation time.

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Fig. 4. Friction stress and die contact pressure obtained for = 90 from the nodal values located at the left and billet right sides referent to: (a) = 0.05; (b) = 0.10; (c) = 0.20.

goes a uniaxial compression before its plastic yielding caused by simple shear. Thus, the initial dispersion of the results for 1 mm is linked to the die response due to the billet compression that is increased for high -values. Also, specically in the left side plot of Fig. 4b, dispersions can be veried in some results obtained for 30, 40, and 45 mm of displacement. The deviations are related to bending of billet layers during the passage forward to the second channel. In the right-side plots of Fig. 4, the appearance of intermediary values can be related to unloading regions placed along the billet surface after crossing the deformation zone. The adherence phenomenon can be evidenced when the billetdie contact regions are analyzed separately. In this context,

Fig. 5 shows the evolution of displacements, contact pressure and friction stress of the nodes located at the billet bottom, left and right sides previously dened in Fig. 2b. In these cases, the most severe condition for friction and die conguration were employed, i.e., the parameters and were assumed as 0.20 and 90 , respectively. In Fig. 5a, along billet left side, one can observe the presence of compressive displacements that falls continuously from the top node 1347 to 1345 located at the bottom side. In addition, the nodes 1491, 1451, and 1413 showed a behavior that suggests a stabilization tendency in their displacements with time. It is clear that the motion of the bottom node (1345) was practically zero. This behavior can be explained by the abrupt increasing in the contact pressure from the bottom to

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Fig. 5. Nodal results for displacement, contact pressure and friction stress, and die contact pressure with time obtained for = 90 and = 0.20: (a) billet left side; (b) billet right side; (c) billet bottom side.

top parts of the billet after starting the pressing process due to high -value adopted. Following the node 1347, one can observe that the pressure contact increases from zero to about 1.1 GPa when the time increases from 0 to 50. Also, at this interval, the regions with high contact pressure exhibited a most intense character of adherence, i.e., the nodes 1347, 1491, and 1451 remained completely adhered while the nodes 1413 and 1345 does not presented a relevant dependence with the sticking friction condition. After this interval and until the end of the simulation (time equal to 450), the nodes showed evidences of a decrease in the contact pressure accompanied by an elevation of the friction stress. This effect is related to the augmented Lagrangian contact algorithm. The friction stress peaks displayed after time of 300 by the nodes 1347 and 1491 can be correlated with billet bending during its passage through the inferior channels intersection. The billet right side behavior during the simulation was marked by a positive contribution to the material plastic yielding toward the second channel. It can be appreciated in Fig. 5b, when one observes an expressive increase of the nodal displacements from the top (node 1348) to the bottom (node 1346) during the simulation without tendency of stabilization previously mentioned. In relation to the frictional behavior, one can note that the material crossing along the channels intersection is char-

acterized by peaks of contact pressure and an increase in the friction stress followed by an unloading step. In addition, the work-hardening of the material is responsible by the elevation in the contact pressure from the bottom to the top regions of the workpiece, i.e., from the node 1346 to the 1348. In summary, the right side of the billet can deform under simple shear conditions displaying peaks of contact pressure for the nodes 1565, 1603, 1643 and 1348. These peaks is related with the material shear yield stress when the billet crosses the deformation zone located at the channels intersection undergoing friction stress levels close to 90 MPa. Along the billet bottom side the nodal displacements were considerably small in comparison with the values corresponding to the left and right sides. It was probably a direct consequence of the severe friction condition adopted. Besides, the initial bending of the workpiece caused an intense adherence in the nodes closed to the billet left side (see nodes 1345 and 1355) with elevated friction stress levels. From the node 1362 to 1346, the positive character associated to the right side contributed to the decrease in the contact pressure and friction stress after time equal to 50. The friction behavior during the passage of the billet into the die with 120 of channels intersection angle was analogue to the

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most severe tool conguration ( = 90 ). Therefore, the nodal behaviors with the time are not presented in this work. However, a smooth channels intersection was responsible by the fall of the shear stress intensity at the billetdie contact interface to the most severe friction condition and after 10 mm of displacement, as shown in Fig. 6. This condition strongly suggests that the plastic strain imposed in the material during the deformation was inferior in comparison of the severe die conguration ( = 90 ) simulated. In this context, is reasonable to deform the IF-steel at = 90 accompanied for values of the friction coefcient down to 0.20 in order to avoid the appearance of adherence. In addition, the die geometry with = 120 promoted a less severe deformation of the billet and, therefore, the dispersion of the results was less intense. However, in the beginning of the pressing the billet bottom part is supported by a small region of the die, as presented in Fig. 1d. Consequently, an increase of contact pressure during the uniaxial compression of the billet can be observed for 1 mm of displacement (Fig. 6). Lastly, the unloading zones associated to the double bending of the billet can be used to explain the gradual decrease in the contact pressure observed in the right plots of Fig. 6. The literature reports several alloys deformed by ECAP via nite element method simulation [5,1012,24,25] using dies with channels intersected at 90 and severe friction conditions to improve the nal mechanical properties. These results indicated that under these conditions high levels of plastic strain per pass could be achieved with appreciable homogeneity. Nevertheless,

the adherence effects were not taken into account in all of the works. 3.2. Dependence of the pressing force with the friction conditions Fig. 7 compares the nodal reaction forces determined for = 90 and 120 as a function of the -value and the billet displacement. As expected, the increase in the friction coefcient requires high pressing pressures and this fact was earlier reported by Dumoulin et al. [5] and, recently reinforced by Son et al. [18]. Also, one can observe an increasing of the reaction forces up to about 7.5 and 5 mm for the both intersecting angles evaluated followed by a decreasing up to about 10 mm. This effect corresponds to the channels width and is due to the rst bending of the billet edge. For = 90 , as presented in Fig. 7a, a common initial behavior was observed for all the extrusion forces with a peak due to the inwards rounded shape of the billet followed by an immediate unloading probably caused by the inversion of the shear stresses sign. A progressive and approximately linear increase of the nodal extrusion force was also noted when = 0.05 close to 15 until near 44 mm of displacement, whereas a drop for -values of 0.10 and 0.20 can be observed due to the adherence of the billet right side at the second channel. However, the force evolution displayed for = 120 shows a reloading up to 15 mm due to the second bending needed to complete the rotation of the billet (Fig. 7b).

Fig. 6. Friction stress and die contact pressure obtained for = 120 from the nodal values located at the left and billet right sides with: (a) = 0.05; (b) = 0.10.

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Fig. 7. Results of the pressing forces in function of the friction conditions for: (a) die channels intersected at 90 ; (b) die channels intersected at 120 .

3.3. Distribution of the effective stresses and strains on the billet Fig. 8 shows the iso-contour plots of the effective von Mises plastic strains and stresses determined for = 90 and 120 , regarding = 0.20. At 90 intersection angle, one should rstly observe that either the bottom or the top of the billet present the smallest effective strains since these regions do not pass through the 45 shear zone between the channels. It is important to note that this extremely high value of the effective plastic strain is close to 2.4 (Fig. 8a). This value is due to being equal to zero and this condition leads to the mesh folding. Finally, the uniform regions of the effective plastic strains are originated by the stress ow lines (Fig. 8b) normal to the direction of the displacement

applications, as previously reported by Kim et al. [8] and also by each Coulombs curve presented in Fig. 4c. At 120 , as depicted in Fig. 8c, the aspects observed can be explained analogously to 90 , e.g., the initial and nal portions of the billet display the smallest plastic deformation since they do not cross the deformation zone placed at the intersection of the channels. The presence of the ow lines (Fig. 8d) normal to the direction of the displacement applications, as reported earlier by Kim et al. [8], can explain the plastic strain uniform zone. However, when one compares the effective plastic strains obtained by means of the models, it is possible to verify that these values decrease as function of increasing the angle. In this point, the importance of the Coulombs curves became clear since the fall of the friction stresses mentioned previously and

Fig. 8. (a) Distribution of effective plastic strains to die channels intersected at 90 . (b) Distribution of correspondent von Mises stresses to die channels intersected at 90 . (c) Distribution of effective plastic strains to die channels intersected at 120 . (d) Distribution of correspondent von Mises stresses to die channels intersected at 120 . In all the simulations, the friction condition adopted was equal to 0.20.

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caused by the increasing of the can be responsible by the decrease of the effective plastic strains. 3.4. Mapping of the nodal effective plastic strains along the uniform strain zone Fig. 9 presents the nodal effective plastic strains obtained along the uniform deformation zone in the vertical and horizontal directions from the die channels intersected at 90 and 120 with distinct friction conditions. It can be observed for the die conguration at 90 that for -values of 0.05 and 0.10, the effective plastic strains are independent of the friction conditions in both directions considering the maximum value equal to 1.15 in the half of the deformation zone. The relative invariance of the effective plastic strains with the friction conditions associated to the dependence with the die geometric parameters agrees

completely with the upper bound-based analytical solutions to the ECAP pressure calculations proposed recently by Eivani and Taheri [19]. In this work, the authors reported that the expressions obtained by the effective plastic strains determinations are functions that depend exclusively of the die geometry adopted. In Fig. 9a, it is worth to mention the presence of homogeneous deformation zone in the horizontal direction. It is clear that the beginning and the end of the zone also showed small values due to inuence of the billet boards and to the portions of 25, 50 and 75%. We have noted that the zone displays homogeneity in the distribution of the strains, as also reported recently by Yoon et al. [20]. On the other hand, in the vertical direction, only the beginning of the strain zone presented small values due to the fact of the inuence of minor board effects. For equal to 0.10, a reasonable heterogeneity in terms of the strains distribution is a direct consequence of the perturba-

Fig. 9. Curves of nodal effective plastic strains along the uniform plastic zone considering die channels intersected at 90 under friction condition equal to: (a) 0.05; (b) 0.10; (c) 0.20.

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Fig. 10. Curves of nodal effective plastic strains along the uniform plastic zone considering die channels intersected at 120 under friction condition equal to: (a) 0.05; (b) 0.10.

tions induced on the billet surface. It is associated to the contact interface, as previously presented in Fig. 4b. For this reason, in the horizontal direction the maximum value of the effective plastic strains were observed at the end of the uniform zone. In the vertical one, the small effect of the billet boards exhibited a tendency analogue that mentioned to the ideal lubrication ( = 0.05). In the most severe friction condition, i.e., for equal to 0.20, the oscillations along the horizontal direction (see Fig. 9c) were intensied by the appearance of sticking friction conditions when the material moves in the direction of the second channel. On the other hand, some regions displayed a huge homogeneity along the vertical direction, e.g., the portions from 25 to 75% of deformation zone. At the beginning (0%) and end (100%) of the billet is possible to observe a proximity effect with the contact surfaces revealing some degree of heterogeneity of plastic strains. The die channels intersected at 120 also showed the inuence of the geometric parameters on the effective plastic strains once the maximum values were about 0.7 (see Fig. 10). These results are in agreement with the results reported earlier by Eivani and Taheri [19]. In the case of ideal lubrication and about 0.10, the absence of adherence induced a signicant homogeneity of strains due to the inexistence of perturbations along the deformation zone, mainly in the horizontal direction where these effects were most evident. However, when is equal to 0.20 the oscillatory effects along the horizontal direction also promoted a large heterogeneity of strains

along the deformation zone. On the other hand, the vertical direction exhibited the homogeneity of strains, analogously to = 90 . 4. Conclusions The quasi-static two-dimension FEM simulations of an IFsteel deformed by means of the ECAP technique after a single pass at room temperature make possible some conclusive observations, as follows: The Coulombs curves were determined to the die channels intersected at 90 and 120 for nodal points placed in the right and left billet sides as function of the friction conditions. It was possible to observe a critical adherence condition for = 90 and 120 , when the -value was equal to 0.20. This condition promotes an increase in the pressing force to press the billet towards to the second channel. The nodal displacements, contact pressure and friction stress levels conrmed the sticking friction conditions when assumes a value of 0.20. This phenomenon was independent of the -value adopted. The effective plastic strain distributions along the billet middle portions induced an extended deformation uniform zone. This effect was not only a consequence of the von Mises stress ow lines normal to the load application direction but also due to combined effects of contact pressure and the friction stress at the billetdie contact region.

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The mapping of the effective plastic strain distributions along the uniform deformation zone was a very useful tool to observe the relative independence of the maximum strain values with the friction when moderate conditions were considered. These results displayed a good agreement with the literature to both cases of the die geometry investigated. Nevertheless, for the most severe friction condition adopted in the present work, the presence of oscillations on the strain zones distributed along the billet horizontal direction can be associated to the appearance of adherence at the workpiecetool contact interfaces. Finally, considering the Coulombs curves and the mapping of the effective plastic strains distributions along the uniform deformation zone was possible to conclude that the best condition to deform bulk materials via ECAP is when one employs a die with channels intersected at 90 associated to a -value equal or less than 0.10. Acknowledgement The authors would like to thank to CAPES for the nancial support. J.F.C. Lins and L.P. Moreira thank to CNPq (Grant No. 400609/2004-5). References
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