Finite element simulation of die design for hot extrusion process of Al/Cu clad composite and its experimental investigation

A clad composite material is a variant of the typical composites which is composed of two or more materials joined at their interface surface. The advantage of clad material is that the combination of different properties of materials can satisfy both the need of good mechanical properties and the demand of user such as electrical properties simultaneously. This paper is concerned with the direct and indirect extrusion process of copper-clad aluminum rod. Extrusion of copper-clad aluminum rod was simulated using a commercially available finite element package, DEFORM which can be used to simulate metal forming and heat transfer, welding and machining processes. The simulations were performed for copper-clad aluminum rod to predict the distributions of temperature, effective stress, effective strain rate and mean stress for various sheath thickness, die exit diameters and die temperatures. From the simulations, it was found that the larger the die outlet diameter and the thickness of the sheath material are, the better results can be acquired. It was found that the experimental result for lubricant material with carbon oil has good agreement with extrusion force from finite element analysis. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.