Material Flow and Temperatures Prediction in Friction Stir Extrusion Process Using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics

An innovative solid-state processing method called friction stir extrusion (FSE) has the potential to save a significant amount of processing time and energy by plastically deforming metal flakes, or billets into parts. A few numerical models are developed to understand the complex physics of the FSE process and most of the FSE research is now experimental studies. The models developed so far are based on grid-based methods. In this study, a mesh-free simulation framework for the FSE process using a lagrangian formulation - smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) is used. A 3-D thermomechanical, SPH-based model was modelled to simulate the extrusion of AA6061 wires by the FSE process. The numerical model is developed based on the previous experimental study of FSE. The results of temperature distribution, material flow, and plastic strains during the FSE process are presented. The smooth extrusion of the material started after the material reached a temperature of 660 K. The maximum temperature of the process reached 83.6% of the melting temperature of AA6061-T6. The material flow patterns predicted by the model are consistent with the material flow studies of the FSE process of earlier studies.