Effect of Die Profile on Strain Inhomogeneity During Constrained Groove Pressing

Constrained groove pressing using conventional dies with groove angle of 45° imparts shear deformation within the material and repetitive pressings leads to the development of fine-grained structure. However, the usage of conventional dies leads to strain localization within the sample and also leaves strong impressions on the surface thereby generating microcracks with repeated number of passes. The present work was carried out numerically as well as experimentally to analyze the strain distribution by altering the die profile to sinusoidal form. AA2014 samples pressed using sinusoidal die profile had lesser strain inhomogeneity as compared to samples pressed using 45° groove angle die. The surface texture was observed to be improved, and a total of 40 passes were possible using a sinusoidal die as compared to 4 passes in 45° groove angle die.