Pipe extrusion is an important metallurgical process, useful in industries like power, automobile, refrigeration etc. It is a complex large deformation problem, which depends on several factors such as-shape of the die, geometrical, and material properties of the billet, temperature, rate of loading, contact conditions between die and billet etc. Actual pipe extrusion is a costly and time-consuming process. It's computer simulation will help in understanding the physics behind and getting quality product in short span of time and very less cost. An ideal extrusion process consists of- stream lined material flow, negligible dead material in the die and proper microstructural development in the extruded pipe. In this study, extrusion simulation of an aluminum pipe of 62.5mm inner diameter and 3.0 mm thickness has been carried out using displacement based large deformation finite element analysis. Material flow and microstructural developments during extrusion have been studied. This study shows that such numerical experimentation before the actual extrusion will help to improve die design, billet geometry, contact conditions etc. The final simulated data may be sent to CNC machines to automate the pipe manufacturing process. This will not only avoid human error but also produce quality product.
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