, K. Kumar

Friction has an important influence in metal forming operations as it contributes to the success or failure of the process. In the present investigation, the effect of friction on metal forming was studied by conducting compression tests of cylindrical Al-Mg alloy using Finite Element Method (FEM) technique. Three kinds of compression tests were performed. For the first test, a constant coefficient of friction (i.e., 0.65) was employed at both upper die – work-piece and lower die- work-piece interfaces. For the second and third tests, the coefficient of friction between the upper die and work-piece interface was same as that of previous test (i.e., 0.65). However, at the lower die-work-piece interface, two different coefficient of friction values, namely 0.65 and 0.35, were employed at different locations (i.e., each halves and each quarters of the cylindrical work-piece for the second and third tests, respectively) in the tests. Simulation results showed that a difference in metal flow occurs near the interfaces owing to the difference in coefficient of friction. It was concluded that the variations in coefficient of friction between the dies and work-piece directly affect the stress distribution and shape of the work-piece. This would directly affect the microstructure of the material being processe