An effective split of flow and deformation calculations of aluminium extrusion

The purpose of the research project of which this paper is a result is to gain insight in design and control parameters of aluminium extrusion by FE simulations. This is done by means of a thermal FE code based on an ALE algorithm (Dieka). A short overview is given of the material models as well as the FE methods that are used. It is shown that it is a very efficient way to separate the aluminium flow and die deformation calculations. Furthermore, it has made it plausible that the complex three-dimensional flow through the extrusion die can be studied very well by means of two-dimensional plane strain calculations. A comparison is made between two- and three-dimensional calculation results. Finally some results of die deformation calculations are shown that are based on different deformation mechanisms.