Study on plastic forming of metal alloys in partly-liquid state

Abstract
The paper presents a fragment of the work on the formability of alloys in the partly liquid state carried out at the University of Mining and Metallurgy in Krakow, Poland. The process of upsetting of cylindrical samples is investigated and the aluminum alloy 2024 (ASTM) of a relatively large crystallization temperature range is used as a testing material. The investigation focuses on the effect of the solid fraction (weight percentage of solid component in the alloy, pre-heated to the temperature above the solidus point) on the process parameters. Thermal-mechanical finite-element model developed for the compression test and adapted to the partly liquid conditions is used for the calculations of the distributions of strain rates, strains and temperatures. The micrographs of the samples after preheating and after deformation in both solid and partly liquid conditions are also presented in the paper.