Numerical investigation of aluminum deformation behavior in three-dimensional continuous confined strip shearing process

Bulk ultra-fine-grained materials can be obtained by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) process. A new metal forming process called as continuous confined strip shearing (CCSS/C2S2) process based on ECAP and Conform process was introduced in this paper for fabricating aluminum alloy sheets with a high formability. The C2S2 process was simulated numerically by using DEFORM-3D and the deformation behavior of the pure aluminum sheets was studied. The influences of die geometric parameters such as the die channel angle and the die outer corner angle on the material deformation were given. In addition, the effect of the friction on the die–workpiece interface on the effective strain change in the C2S2 process was investigated. The obtained numerical simulation results provide valuable guidelines for C2S2's die design, determination of process parameters and process planning.