Effect of Temperature and Strain Rate on the Mechanical Properties of 99.5 Aluminium Rods Extruded by KOBO

Abstract

In this study, aluminium rods were cold extruded in a direct process by KOBO method in two variants: variant I with varying (decreasing) frequency of die oscillations necessary to maintain a constant extrusion force, and variant II with constant frequency of die oscillations, leading to a decrease in the extrusion force. The tensile test of rods was carried out in a temperature range of 20 - 200°C and at a strain rate from 8xE10-5 to 8xE10-1 s-1. Significant differences in the elongation of the tested rods were observed. It was found that rods extruded at variable die oscillations and stretched at room temperature had similar elongation, independent of the strain rate. With the increase of temperature, the elongation of samples stretched at a low speed was growing from a value of about 8% at room temperature up to 40% at 200°C. At high strain rates, despite the increasing temperature, the elongation remained at the same level, i.e. 5-6%. In rods extruded at constant die oscillations, the elongation at a low strain rate was growing with the temperature from 10% at room temperature up to 29% at 200°C. At high strain rates, the elongation decreased from 28% at room temperature to 11% at 200°C. The results were interrelated with examinations of the structure of rods and fractures of tensile specimens. In the material extruded by KOBO method with constant die oscillations, the beginnings of the recrystallization process were observed, absent in the material extruded at variable die oscillations.