Prediction of charge welds in hollow profiles extrusion by FEM simulations and experimental validation

In direct extrusion of aluminum alloys, billets are discretely loaded into the press and joined by the high hydrostatic pressure field. The contamination of the billet-to-billet interface by oxides, dust, or lubricant produces a welded zone (charge weld) with reduced mechanical properties that requires profile discharge. For an efficient material scrapping, both the position of the transition zone and its extent in the profile must be accurately identified. In industrial practice, in relation to a lack of experimental and numerical studies on this specific matter, the determination of the zone to be discarded is still performed mainly by experience or labor-intensive analyses. The aim of the present study is to bridge this gap by investigating the evolution of the charge welds inside an industrial multi-profiles and determining their exact position and extension by experimental microstructural analyses coupled with comprehensive 3D FE simulations performed with the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian code HyperXtrude®. Skin and rest defects are also experimentally investigated and a numerical sensitivity study on the influence of the friction model selection is performed. Comparison between numerical and experimental results shows a good agreement both in terms of general trend and exhausting points of the charge welds. The results prove that the FE code is a reliable tool in assisting and driving the die and process design stages, not only for process optimization as reported in literature but also for the scrap length determination. Finally, a process efficiency index is defined and, for the specific case study, it is found to be increased from 82.6 %, as resulting from the actual industrial practice, to a 88.3 % as optimized by the performed coupled experimental and numerical activities.