Abstract
Liquid nitrogen cooling is widely used in the extrusion industrial practice in order to increase the production rate, to reduce the die temperature and to avoid defects on the profile exit surfaces resulting from an excessive heating. However, the efficiency of the cooling is deeply affected by position and design of the liquid nitrogen channel so that numerical modelling is gaining an increasing industrial interest in relation to the possibility offered to optimize the channel design without expensive and time-consuming experimental trials. In this work, a numerical FE model developed within COMSOL Multiphysics® is proposed and validated against experimental trials performed in industrial environment. The model combines the 3D simulation of the extrusion process with a 1D model of the cooling channel thus allowing the testing of a number of different solutions at the die design stage. The global aim of this work is the assessment of the liquid nitrogen cooling efficiency in the extrusion of an industrial aluminum profile and the proof of the potentials offered by numerical models to get an optimized channel design in terms of cooling efficiency, die thermal balancing and reduction of liquid nitrogen consumption.
Highlights
The thermal control of the hot extrusion process is a mandatory activity in order to obtain sound products, while preserving the production rate in relation to the high temperatures developed for friction and deformation [1,2]
The finite element modelling (FEM) of hot aluminum extrusion process is a yet well-consolidated practice to predict the main output parameters in terms of thermal gradient, extrusion load and potential profile and tool defects [9,10,11,12]; only few works deal with the modelling of cooling
The experimental campaign performed on an industrial AA6082 aluminum profile extruded with a nitrogen cooled die evidenced the efficiency of the solution obtaining a drop of 20 °C in the exit profile temperature and a peak drop of 80 °C in the die, nearby the bearing zones
Summary
The thermal control of the hot extrusion process is a mandatory activity in order to obtain sound products, while preserving the production rate in relation to the high temperatures developed for friction and deformation [1,2]. The finite element modelling (FEM) of hot aluminum extrusion process is a yet well-consolidated practice to predict the main output parameters in terms of thermal gradient, extrusion load and potential profile and tool defects [9,10,11,12]; only few works deal with the modelling of cooling In this context, aim of this work is further assessing the potentiality of a 3D numerical model of the extrusion process integrated with a 1D model of the cooling channel, proposed by the authors in a previous work [13], against a more complex industrial case study. The capabilities of the numerical re-design of the channel are shown with the aim to obtain during the die design stage an optimal cooling solution in terms of balanced thermal field and nitrogen consuming
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