Deformation division of metal flow behavior during extrusion process of 7075 aluminum alloy

To reduce defects caused by non-homogeneous metal flow in conventional extrusion, a die with guiding angle was designed to improve the metal flow behavior. The characteristic quantities such as the second invariant of the deviator stress J2 and Lode’s coefficient μ were employed for the division of deformation area. The results show that when the metal is extruded with the guiding angle, no metal flow interface forms at the container’s bottom, the dead zone completely disappears, the deformation types of the metal in the plastic deformation area change from three types to one type of tension, and the homogeneity of the deformation as well as metal flow are greatly improved. The non-homogeneous metal flow at the final stage of extrusion is improved, reducing the shrinkage hole at the axis end. The radial stress of the furthest point from the axis is transformed from tensile stress to compressive stress and the axial stress, and decreased from 70.8 to 34.8 MPa. Therefore, the surface cracks caused by additional stress are greatly reduced.