Ultrasonic assisted-ECAP

► ECAP process has been performed and modeled in the presence of ultrasonic vibration. ► ECAP forming force is reduced when amplitude or frequency of vibration was increased. ► The vibration amplitude has more effective than frequency in reducing the forming load. ► Higher die channel angle resulted in more forming force reduction. Equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) is one of the most prominent procedures for achieving ultra-fine grain (UFG) structures among the various severe plastic deformation (SPD) techniques. In this study, the effect of ultrasonic vibration on deformation behavior of commercial pure aluminum in the ECAP process is analyzed successfully using three dimensional (3D) by finite element methods (FEMs). The investigation includes the effects of die geometry, billet length, friction factor, ram speed, ultrasonic amplitude and ultrasonic frequency. Conventional as well as ultrasonic ECAP has been performed on aluminium 1070 alloy and the obtained data were used for validating simulations. It is observed that a 13% reduction in the average force was achieved when ultrasonic vibration with amplitude of 2.5μm at 20kHz is applied. Also, further reduction in ECAP forming forces are obtained with increase of vibration amplitude, vibration frequency, friction factor, billet length and die channel angle.