Electrically assisted pressure joining (EAPJ) utilizes electric current-induced kinetic enhancement to achieve solid state diffusion bonding within a short time. In this study, aluminum alloy specimens, which are known as a hard-to-weld metal, were successfully solid-state joined through EAPJ. The bonding process was performed in two ways: continuous direct current (CDC), which applies relatively low current density, and pulsed direct current (PDC), which applies high current density. It was observed that the bonding strength was higher in PDC than in CDC. The microstructure of the joint was characterized using 3D X-ray microscopy (XRM) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD).

Extruded Mg-Bi binary alloys are known to have an undesirable bimodal grain structure containing a large amount of coarse unrecrystallized grains. Accordingly, to improve the microstructural homogeneity of extruded Mg-Bi alloys, it is necessary to promote the dynamic recrystallization (DRX) behavior during hot extrusion. An effective way to promote DRX is an increase in nucleation sites for DRX through a pre-deformation process before extrusion, such as cold pre-forging and hot pre-compression. However, the application of these pre-deformation processes increases the cost of final extruded Mg products because of an increase in energy consumption and decrease in productivity. Therefore, a low-cost new continuous process with high productivity is required to improve the microstructural homogeneity and mechanical properties of extruded Mg alloys without a drastic increase in the entire process cost. This study proposes a new extrusion method using an extrusion billet with a truncated cone shape (i.e., tapered billet) instead of a conventional extrusion billet with a cylindrical shape. When the hot extrusion of a Mg-5Bi alloy is conducted using the tapered billet, the DRX behavior during extrusion is considerably promoted. The DRX fraction and average grain size of the extruded alloy significantly increase and decrease from 65% to 91% and from 225 ㎛ to 49 ㎛, respectively. Consequently, the extruded Mg-5Bi alloy fabricated using the tapered billet has a finer homogeneous grain structure and higher tensile elongation than the extruded counterpart fabricated using the cylindrical billet.

The yield criterion, or called yield function, plays an important role in the study of plastic working of a sheet because it governs the plastic deformation properties of the sheet during plastic forming process. In this paper, we propose a modified version of previous anisotropic yield function (Trans. Mater. Process., 31(4) 2022, pp. 214-228) based on J2 and J3 stress invariants. The proposed anisotropic yield model has the 6th-order of stress components. The modified version of the anisotropic yield function in this study is as follows. f(J₂⁰,J₃⁰) ≡ (J₂⁰)³ + α(J₃⁰)² + β(J₂⁰)^3/2 × (J₃⁰) = k⁶ The proposed anisotropic yield function well explains the anisotropic plastic behavior of various sheets such as aluminum, high strength steel, magnesium alloy sheets etc. by introducing the parameters α and β, and also exhibits both symmetrical and asymmetrical yield surfaces. The parameters included in the proposed model are determined through an optimization algorithm from uniaxial and biaxial experimental data under proportional loading path. In this study, the validity of the proposed anisotropic yield function was verified by comparing the yield surface shape, normalized uniaxial yield stress value, and Lankford's anisotropic coefficient R-value derived with the experimental results. Application for the proposed anisotropic yield function to AA6016-T4 aluminum and DP980 sheets shows symmetrical yielding behavior and to AZ31B magnesium shows asymmetric yielding behavior, it was shown that the yield locus and yielding behavior of various types of sheet materials can be predicted reasonably by using the proposed anisotropic yield function.

The microstructure and high-temperature plastic deformation behavior of the modified Al-0.7Mn alloy were investigated and compared with the conventional Al-0.3Mn (Al3102) alloy. α-Al (matrix) and Al₆(Mn, Fe) phases were identified in both alloys. As a result of microstructure observation, both alloys showed equiaxed grains, and Al-0.7Mn alloy showed larger grain size and higher Al₆(Mn, Fe) fraction than Al-0.3Mn alloy. High temperature compressive tests, the deformation temperatures of 410℃, 450℃, 490℃, 530℃ and strain rats of 10^-2/s, 10^-1/s, 1/s, 10/s, were conducted using Gleeble equipment. The flow stress values of Al-0.7Mn alloy were higher than that of Al-0.3Mn alloy at all strain rates and temperature conditions. Constitutive equations were presented using the flow stresses obtained from experimental results and the Zener-Hollomon parameter. In the true stress-true strain curves of the two alloys, the experimental and predicted values were in good agreement with each other. Based on the dynamic material model, eutectic deformation maps of Al-0.7Mn and Al-0.3Mn alloys were suggested, and the plastic instability region was presented. The modified Al-0.7Mn alloy showed a wider plastic instability region than that Al-0.3Mn alloy. Based on the process deformation maps, the MPE tube parts could be manufactured through the actual extrusion process using the suggested conditions.

The potential damage region of a WC-Co cemented carbide die is investigated for cold forging process of a wheel-nut by numerical simulation with its chemical composition considered. Numerical simulation is utilized to calculate internal stress, especially for the WC-Co die, during the forging process. Finite element model is established, in which the elasto-plastic properties are applied to the work-piece of bulk steel, and elastic properties are considered for the lower die insert of the WC-Co alloy. This stress analysis enables to distinguish the potential damage regions of the WC-Co die. The regions from calculation are comparatively analyzed along with the crack area observed in the die after repetitive manufacturing. Effect of chemical composition of the WC-Co is also evaluated on characteristics of potential damage region of the die with variance of mechanical properties considered. Derived from Mohr-Coulomb fracture model, furthermore, a new stress index is presented and used for die stress analysis. This index inherently considers hydrostatic pressure and is then capable of deducing wide range of its distribution for representing stress state by modification of its parameter implying pressure sensitivity.

The flow forming process consists of a split process, a divide process, and a forming process. The split process is a forming process in which rollers radially permeate a simple disc-shaped forging material and split it in both directions to form a top-bottom bidirectional cup. It is advantageous for post-processing to deepen the forming depth in the split process but this characteristic causes the failure near the edge of the mandrel during the actual process. The split process was analyzed using Rigid Plastic FEM, and the stress analysis of the mandrel was conducted to find the cause of the failure. It was found that the failure occurred due to fatigue accumulation damage caused by repeated residual stress.

In the automotive industry, cold-drawn austenitic stainless steel is commonly used to handle high fuel pressures in gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines. In this study, we analyzed the effects of main process variables such as cross-sectional shape, drawing speed and friction coefficient on the microstructure, hardness and residual stress of the drawn material in the two-step cold drawing process. By changing the cross-sectional shape in the first-step cold drawing, the possibility of improving the shape accuracy or physical properties of the finally cold-drawn fuel rail pressure sensor product was investigated.