Tuesday  |  Salon 11  |  09:00 AM–09:20 AM

#15752, Elevated Temperature Compression Experiments of an Aluminum Alloy for Forging Operations

A series of experiments were designed to measure the large deformation compressive behavior of 6061 Aluminum alloy. The alloy was studied in various starting states, from both bar stock and pre-forged material. The bar stock was 76 mm (3 inch) diameter round bar in the 6061-T651 condition. The pre-forged material was part of a large forging in the 6061-T652 condition. After machining, some specimens were left in the starting condition and others were heat treated to produce specimens in either the 6061-T4 or 6061-TO condition. This enabled an important verification of the effect of processing variant on the mechanical behavior at elevated temperatures. Compression specimens were designed to produce uniformly strained specimens, with minimal to no barreling or friction-induced end effects. Optimal lubrication methods were determined for various test temperatures. Experiments were conducted over a range of strain rates from 0.001/s to 10/s, and at forging temperatures ranging from 400 C to 500 C. The experimental parameters were selected based on actual forging production and preliminary finite element simulations of the multi-stage process of a large forging of interest. These parameters were aimed to encompass the range of possible forging temperatures for 6061 Aluminum and the full range of strain rates experienced throughout an individual forging. The measured properties were used to update the material constitutive model, thus enabling more accurate simulations of current and future forging processes and predictions of resulting forged properties. The experimental apparatus, design and methods will be described. Results will be presented to demonstrate the effects of temperature, strain rate and alloy processing.

Acknowledgement: Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc. for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

Bonnie Antoun   Sandia National Laboratories
Michael Stender   Sandia National Laboratories