FEA of Plastic Flow in AZ63 Alloy during ECAP Process

Magnesium alloys based on Mg-Al-Zn system are very attractive materials in many industries due to their specific properties. One of common forming manners suitable for this kind of material is the application of severe plastic deformation method. This paper is focused on the deformation behavior of AZ63 alloy at equal channel angular pressing process in the temperature range of 250-320°C. For this purpose finite element analysis was used. Main attention was devoted to the influence of processing parameters on the material flow. Among other, changes of the flow during equal channel angular pressing in chosen regions of the pressed samples were monitored. As variables, temperature, friction coefficient, strain rate, φ-angle or back pressure application were chosen. The comparison of the material flow lines at different conditions shows the affecting of material flow. There are obvious considerable differences between regions adjacent to the inner radius and those adjacent to the outer radius. For example in the case μ = 0 the dead zone is delimited by the angle Ψp = 36°, while in the case of friction given by the coefficient μ = 0.04, the value of the angle was Ψp = 26.5°.