COLD FORMING

On the determination of friction

coefficients by ring compression
Klaus Phlandt, Dorel Banabic, Kurt Lange

The accuracy of FE simulations of metal forming processes depends on the input data whereby the friction
coefficients are an essential source of error. For applications in bulk metal forming, friction coefficients are
often determined by ring compression tests. When evaluating these tests it is usually assumed that the
material of the specimen is isotropic. It is shown in this paper that a variation of the radial anisotropy of the
material can influence the diameter of the ring after compression in the same way as a variation of the
friction coefficient. Assuming isotropy in test evaluation may cause errors of the friction coefficients of
up to 50%. All friction coefficients reported in the literature have to be re-examined under this aspect.

Finite element simulations have be- flowshed is formed whereby a part of curves shown in figure 2 have been ob-
come a powerful tool for the planning the material moves to the center and tained this way. In principle also the
of metal forming processes and tool the rest outwards. The inner diameter outer diameter could be measured,
design whereby there is a tendency to- as a function of the reduction of height however, the inner diameter varies
wards increasing the accuracy steadily. and of the friction coefficient can be more sensitively with a variation of the
Until now, however, the accuracy of calculated using an FE code. The friction coefficient.
such simulations is limited by errors of
the input data, in particular the fric-
tion coefficients. For applications in
bulk metal forming, friction coeffi-
cients are often determined by ring Figure 1
compression tests after Kunogi [1], see
Inner diameter di
also [2 to 6]. of a ring compression
A specimen as shown in figure 1 is specimen as a
function of height h
compressed to a certain height and the for various friction
inner diameter is measured after com- coefficients.
Calculated values
pression. When evaluating these tests assuming isotropy
it is usually assumed that the material of the ring material
and experimental
of the ring specimen is isotropic. The results for three
Coulomb friction coefficient is defined tribosystems [2]
as the ratio of friction shear stress and
normal stress [7]:
Fr
= (1)

The inner diameter after compression
depends on the friction coefficient as
shown in figure 1. This diagram can be
explained as follows: For a given
height the inner diameter takes that
value for which the total required
work is minimum. This work is the
sum of the work required to overcome
friction and the work for plastic defor-
mation. The work for overcoming fric-
tion depends on the relative move-
ment of specimen and die. Therefore a

www.UTFscience.de III/2004 Phlandt et al.: On the determination ... 1

 COLD FORMING
Radial anisotropy
Figure 2 Example of a ring compression specimen with Rastegaev lubrication
(dimensions in mm) [12]
The theory of the ring compression
test was developed by Avitzur [8] and
other authors. Generally calibration
curves like those in figure 2 are used
for test evaluation. In [5] the curves
calculated by various authors were
compared whereby the curves by Liu
[9], Abdul [10] and Male and Cock-
croft [11] agreed well. However, until
now in no publication the effect of
anisotropy of the ring material has
been taken into account. Radial-tan-
gential anisotropy is one of the param-
eters defined in [12] for describing the
plastic anisotropy of tubes, wires and
round bars. This parameter gives the
ratio of contraction in circumferential
and in thickness direction during a
tensile test on a (thin-walled) tube:
t ( z )
R rt ( z ) = (2) Variation of the inner diameter of a friction-free ring during compression specimen
r ( z ) Figure 3
for various values of radial-tangential anisotropy according to equation (7)
(assuming ri0 = ra0/2)
Here t, r and z are the strains in
tangential, radial and axial direction,
respectively. For simplicity, this quan-
tity shall be called radial anisotropy
but the symbol Rrt will still be used for
avoiding any misunderstanding.
Until now the radial anisotropy has
only been determined for a few mate-
rials. Some examples are given in the
table.

Table 1: Radial Anisotropy of Tubes [13]

Material Dimensions Rrt

mm
CuZn cold-drawn 20 x 1.0 0.6
CuZn annealed 20 x 1.0 1.3
CuZn cold-drawn 18 x 1.0 0.8
Ti cold-drawn 18 x 1.5 0.45 outer radius after compression to the Using equations (3), (4), (5) it is ob-
Zircaloy cold-drawn 17.8 x 1.0 0.5 height h: tained by some calculation
1 R r
ri 1 h 0 1+ R r
h0 Rr
ra = ri2 + 3ri20 ( ) (4) h
h = ( ) 3 ( 0 ) 1+ R r (7)
ri 0 2 h h
The radial anisotropy has an effect Here h0 is the initial height of the spec-
during compression of a ring speci- imen. Furthermore it follows from This is illustrated by figure 3. The
men with good lubrication like shown equation (2) and the law of volume curves in this figure are similar to
in figure 2. Assuming the friction coef- conservation those in figure 1 for values of below
ficient to be zero, the variation of the 0.1. A variation of the radial
h
inner radius during compression can (1 + R rt ) r = ln( ) (5) anisotropy has a similar effect as a
be calculated as follows whereby it is h0 variation of the friction coefficient.
assumed that the initial inner radius is Here the right side is the natural strain Since most materials are anisotropic
one half of the outer radius: in axial direction resulting form the re- the results of ring compression tests
duction of height. The radial strain is normally are a superposition of the ef-
ri 0 = ra 0 / 2 (3)
given by fects of friction and radial anisotropy.
This applies for the specimen shown From the curves in figures 1 and 3
ra ri
in figure 1. From the law of volume r = ln (6) the curves in figure 4 have been de-
conservation it follows for the ra 0 ri 0 rived. Whereas high values of the fric-

www.UTFscience.de III/2004 Phlandt et al.: On the determination ... 2


tion coefficient may cause a reduction
of the inner diameter of the ring, the
radial anisotropy will normally cause
an increase except for very low values
of Rrt. The figure demonstrates that re-
alistic values of the radial anisotropy
may cause an apparent friction coeffi-
cient of up to 0.04 when evaluating the
test results assuming isotropy. In bulk
metal forming the friction coefficients
are of the order 0.05 to 0.10. The as-
sumption of isotropy may cause errors
of the friction coefficients of the order
of 50%.
To eliminate these errors it may be
assumed as a first approximation that
the effects of friction and of anisotropy
are additive. In addition to ring com-
pression tests under the actual tribo-
logical conditions of interest, experi-
ments with Rastegaev lubrication
(comp. figure 2) have to be carried
out. The difference
ri ri =0 (8)
has to be used for determining friction
coefficients from the diagram shown
in figure 1. This will improve the accu-
racy of results by one order of magni-
tude. For a more accurate test evalua-
tion, however, the interaction of fric-
tion and anisotropy effects should be
studied more thoroughly.
Concluding remarks
Under the high pressures of bulk
metal forming processes the use of the
Coulomb friction coefficient may re-
sult into unrealistically high shear
stresses. Therefore the frictional shear
factor m has been introduced which
relates the friction shear stress to the
shear flow stress of the material [7]. It
is defined by
Fr = mk (9)
It has been shown that assuming
isotropy of the ring material may
www.UTFscience.de III/2004
Figure 4
Values of fric-
tion coefficient
m as a function
of the radial
anisotropy Rrt
causing equal
variation of the
inner diameter
cause a large error of the obtained fric-
tion coefficients. These coefficients can
only be determined accurately by tak-
ing into account radial anisotropy. For
References
[1] Kunogi, M., J. Sci. Res. Inst. 2 (1954), 63.
[2] Burgdorf, M.: ber die Ermittlung des
Reibwertes fr Verfahren der Massivumformung
durch den Ringstauchversuch.
Ind.-Anz. 89 (1967), 623-629
[3] Niederkorn, S.: Meeinrichtung zur
Untersuchung der Wirkflchenreibung.
Fertigungstechnik Erlangen, Bd. 80,
Bamberg, Meisenbach Verlag 1998
[4] Laackman, B.; Sturzenhecker, H.:
Optimale Auswertemethode zur Bestimmung des
Reibfaktors. Tribologie und Schmierungstechnik
44 (1997), 170-173
[5] Rao, K.P.; Sivaram, K.: A review of ring
compression testing and applicability of the
calibration curves.
J. Mater. Process. Technol. 37 (1993), 295-318
[6] Yhu-Jen-Hwu, Chwan-Tzong-Hsu,
Fengyin-Wang: Measurement of friction and the
flow stress of steels at room and elevated tempera-
tures by ring-compression tests.
J. Mater. Process. Technol. 37 (1993), 319-335
[7] Lange, K. (Ed.) Handbook of Metal Forming,
New York, McGraw Hill 1985
[8] Avitzur, B.: Metal Forming: Processes and
Analysis, New York, Mc Graw Hill 1968
COLD FORMING
improving the accuracy of FE simula-
tions, all friction coefficients reported
in the literature have to be re-exam-
ined under this aspect.
[9] Liu, J. Y.: Trans. ASME,
J. Eng. Ind. 94 (1972), 775
[10] Abdul, N. A.: Annals of the CIRP 30 (1981), 139
[11] Male, A. T.; Cockcroft, M. G.:
J. Inst. Met. 93 (1964/65), 38
[12] Phlandt, K.; Lange, K.; Zucko, M.:
Concepts and experiments for characterizing
plastic anisotropy of round bars, wires and tubes.
steel research 69 (1998), 170-174
[13] Report on the DFG-Research Project
Radial Anisotropy (in German), Institut fr
Metallformung, TU Bergakademie Freiberg 1994
Authors

Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Klaus Phlandt, Institut
fr Statik und Dynamik der Luft- und Raumfahrt-
konstruktionen, Universitt Stuttgart, Germany.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dorel Banabic, Dept. of
Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of
Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. h. c. Kurt Lange, Institut fr
Umformtechnik, Universitt Stuttgart.
Phlandt et al.: On the determination ... 3