Simulation of thixoformability of A356 aluminum alloy using finite volume method

In the recent two decades, researchers have paid much attention to semi-solid forming (SSF). The reason of being under attention is higher production rate and lower energy consumption rather than conventional forming processes. In this research, one of the most important and widely used manufacturing processes, forward extrusion, has been simulated. The used procedure for simulating forward extrusion of A356 aluminum alloy at semi-solid state was finite volume method. Different process parameters such as punch velocity, die angle and initial temperature have been included in the simulated method. The results show that both workpiece temperature and punch force depend on the mentioned parameters. Computational results show a good compatibility with the experimental data.