FEM Analysis of the Skin Contamination Behavior in the Extrusion of a AA6082 Profile

Abstract

In the extrusion of aluminum alloys, the skin contamination lead to the scraping of the profile extent in which this defect occurs. In order to optimize the scraping process, extrusion companies and die makers can either perform time-consuming and expensive analyses to experimentally determine the evolution of the defect or rely on predictive methods. Recently, numerical methods, as the Finite Elements, are increasingly used to predict the evolution of the skin contamination, but their accuracy is still uncertain. In this work, an AA6082 aluminum profile of industrial complexity is analysed and the data collected used to validate an innovative method for the prediction of the skin contamination evolution developed using the commercial FEM code Qform®. In addition, the results are used to assess the prediction accuracy of an industrial empirical formula often used by operators.