Journal of Materials Processing Technology 138 (2003) 499–504

3D upper-bound modeling for round-to-triangle section

extrusion using the SERR technique
R.K. Sahooa, P.K. Karb, S.K. Sahoob,*
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, CET, OUAT, Bhubaneswar 752 003, Orissa, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Regional Engineering College, Rourkela 769 008, Orissa, India

Abstract

The spatial elementary rigid region (SERR) technique is eminently suitable for analyzing extrusion of section having re-entrant corners.
However, in its present form, it cannot be used to analyze forming processes where the deformation zone has curved boundaries, since the
elementary regions will no longer remain rigid. The present study is an endeavor to remodel this technique so that it can handle round billets.
The circular cross-section of the round billet is approximated by a regular polygon of equal area and the number of sides of the approximating
polygon is progressively increased until convergence of the extrusion pressure is achieved. As a test, the extrusion of triangular section bars
from round billets through linearly converging dies is analyzed.
# 2003 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

Keywords: Extrusion; Upper bound; Kinematically admissible velocity field; Discretization

1. Introduction of cross-section was assumed to be maintained throughout

For the extrusion of sections, converging dies with lubri-
cants are more preferred to flat dies, as the former provide a
gradual change in shape and reduction of area simultaneously.
Again the flat-faced or the so-called square die has the
disadvantage of not providing any work hardening effect,
thus requiring high extrusion energy. Now it is becoming
essential to take greater attention for the extrusion of section
rods from round stock as this operation offers the promise
of an economic production route. The process is attractive
also, because press machines are readily available and the
necessity to purchase expensive section stock corresponding
to a multiplicity of required section is eliminated.
Despite the advantage of converging dies, only a few
theoretical approaches to the extrusion or drawing processes
for 3D shapes have been published. Nagpal and Altan [1]
introduced the concept of dual stream functions to express
3D flow in the die and analyzed the force of extrusion from
round billet to elliptical bars. Basily and Sansome [2] made
an upper-bound analysis of drawing of square sections from
round billets by using triangular elements at entry and exit of
the die. Yang and Lee [3] formulated kinematically admis-
sible velocity fields for the extrusion of billets having
generalized cross-sections, where the similarity in the profile
*
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: sksahoo@rec.ren.nic.in (S.K. Sahoo).
deformation. Prakash and Khan [4] made an upper-bound
analysis of extrusion and drawing through dies of polygonal
cross-sections with straight stream lines, where the similar-
ity in shape was maintained. Boer et al. [5] applied the
upper-bound approach to drawing of square rods from round
stocks, by employing a method of co-ordinate transforma-
tion. Gunasekera and Hosino [6] obtained an upper-bound
solution for extrusion and drawing of square sections from
round billets through converging dies formed by an envelope
of straight lines.
The upper-bound technique appears to be a useful tool for
analyzing 3D metal forming problems when the objective of
such an analysis is limited to prediction of the deformation
load and/or study of metal flow during the process. This is so
because the classical slip line field solution is not applicable
to this class of problem and the finite element method (FEM)
is constrained by computational difficulties to achieve
accuracy in these cases. Lee et al. [7] compared the results
obtained by the upper-bound method (UBM), FEM and the
weighted residual method (WRM) with experimental data
for extrusion of various sectional shapes at an area reduction
of 60%. They found that the WRM, which is based on the
velocity field of the UBM they adopted, gives the lowest
result at relatively lower computational effort than the FEM.
However, UBM is the simplest even though the predicted
load, as reported by Lee et al. for the problems they solved, is
about 9% higher than of FEM.

0924-0136/03/$ – see front matter # 2003 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

doi:10.1016/S0924-0136(03)00128-6
500 R.K. Sahoo et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 138 (2003) 499–504

Nomenclature

ai1 ; ai2 ; ai3 coefficients in the equation of the ith face

Afj area of the jth face having friction
Ai area of the ith face of the rigid region
A0, Ae cross-section areas of the billet and
product
J upper-bound energy consumption
L length of each side of the approximating
polygon
m friction factor on the die surface
M number of sides of the approximating
polygon
^
n unit vector normal to a surface Fig. 1. Extrusion of triangle section from round billet.
Pav average extrusion pressure
R billet radius
2. SERR technique
V velocity vector in general
Vb, Ve billet and product velocity
In the SERR technique, the deformation zone is envisaged
Vx ; Vy ; Vz components of velocity in Cartesian
to consist of tetrahedral rigid blocks, each block separated
co-ordinates
from others by planes of velocity discontinuity. Each rigid
DVi velocity discontinuity across the ith face
region has its own internal velocity vector consistent with the
x; y; z axes of general Cartesian co-ordinates
boundary conditions. Thus, if there are N rigid blocks, then the
number of unknown internal velocity vectors is also N (thus,
Greek letters
3N spatial velocity components). The velocity at entry to the
eij components of strain rate tensor
deformation zone (the billet velocity) is considered to be
y internal angle of a polygon
prescribed and the velocity at the exit has a single component
s0 yield stress in uniaxial tension
since its direction is known from the physical description of
f function representing the equation of a
the problem. Therefore, the total number of unknown velocity
planer surface
components in the global level becomes 3N þ 1. All these
unknown velocity components can be uniquely determined if
an equal number of equations are generated. This is done
A method employing a discontinuous velocity field was applying the mass continuity condition to the bounding faces
proposed by Gatto and Giarda [8]. This method is based on of all the tetrahedral rigid blocks taken together. It may be
discretizing the deformation zone into elementary rigid noted that the set of velocity equations so generated becomes
regions. In such a scenario, the rigid regions have a constant consistent and determinate if and only if the SERR blocks are
internal velocity vector and the deformation is assumed to tetrahedral in shape, so that, the number of triangular bound-
occur at the interfaces of these regions. The rigid element ing faces automatically becomes 3N þ 1.
assumption limits the use of this technique to problems with To illustrate the application of the above principles, let the
flat boundaries. Further, Gatto and Giarda’s formulation ith bounding face in the assembly of tetrahedrons be in the
appears suitable for problems where billet and product plane
sections are similar. Kar and Das [9] modified this tech-
fðx; y; zÞ  ai1 x þ ai2 y þ ai3 z þ 1 ¼ 0 (1)
nique to solve problems with dissimilar billet and product
sections. However, their formulation was also limited to The coefficients ai1 ; ai2 and ai3 in Eq. (1) above can be
problems with flat boundaries and, as such, the analysis determined by specifying the co-ordinates of the three
of extrusion from round billets is excluded from their vertices of this triangular face. Then the unit normal vector
formulation. However, Kar and Sahoo [10] used the refor- to this face is
mulated spatial elementary rigid region (SERR) technique rf
for the analysis of round-to-square extrusion by approx- ^n ¼ (2)
jrfj
imating the circle into a polygon and successively increas-
ing the number of sides of this approximating polygon If V1 and V2 are the velocity vectors on both sides of the ith
until the extrusion pressure converged. They used this face, the condition for continuity is
procedure for round-to-square extrusion through square
^ni  V1 ¼ ^ni  V2 (3)
dies. The present paper uses this approximation for the
analysis of round-to-triangle extrusion through a conver- A determinate set of velocity equations is generated by
ging die (Fig. 1). applying Eq. (3) to all the bounding faces in the assembly
 R.K. Sahoo et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 138 (2003) 499–504
of tetrahedrons. The boundary conditions on the velocity
field are also enforced through this equation. For example, if
a face lies on a plane of symmetry then the right-hand side of
Eq. (3) is made zero to admit the condition that no mass flow
occurs normal to these faces. On the other hand, if the
undeformed metal enters into the deformation zone through
a particular face (an entry plane), then the right-hand side of
Eq. (3) should be ^ ni  Vb , where Vb is the billet velocity.
The deformation zone, in case of a metal forming process
that occurs in a closed channel, can be subdivided into
subzones that are prismatic, pyramidal or simply tetrahedral
in shape or a combination of these shapes. Since the
elementary blocks are to be tetrahedral in nature, the pris-
matic or pyramidal subzones are ultimately discretized into
tetrahedrons. A pyramid can be discretized into two tetra-
hedrons by dividing the quadrilateral base into two triangles.
Thus, there are two ways of discretizing a pyramid into two
tetrahedral blocks. In a similar manner, a prism can be
discretized into three tetrahedrons in six different ways.
3. Application to the present problem
For the sake of the present analysis, it is assumed that the
centroid of the die aperture lies on the billet axis. This
assumption is necessary so that the product remains straight
as it comes out of the die orifice [11].
As mentioned earlier, the SERR technique can be applied
where there are plane boundaries. Hence, the curved surface
is to be replaced by planar surfaces so as to accommodate the
SERR analysis. For the present analysis the authors have
approximated the round billet by a 12-sided regular polygon
(Fig. 2). This polygon was chosen since there is a negligible
Fig. 2. Variation of extrusion pressure with number of sides of
approximating regular polygon.
501
change of final computed value by further increasing the
number of sides. To approximate the circular cross-section
of the billet into a regular polygon, the cross-sectional area
of the billet and the area of the approximating polygon must
be maintained equal. This condition is enforced through the
relation


pR2 ¼ M 14 L2 cot 12 y (4)
From considerations of symmetry, only one half of the
deformation zone (domain of interest) is considered for this
analysis. The subzones of deformation can be delineated in
the domain of interest by taking suitably located floating
point (points whose locations are not a priori known). For the
sake of illustration, Fig. 3 shows one half of the domain of
interest, with a single floating point on the plane of sym-
metry and all the corner points are joined to it. The resulting
pyramids and tetrahedrons are the ultimate subzones of
deformation for this SERR formulation.
For this single-point formulation (round cross-section
approximated by 12-sided polygon), there are two pyramidal
subzones (12–4–5–11–10 and 12–7–8–9–11) and five tetra-
hedral subzones (11–12–10–2, 2–12–10–3, 3–12–10–4,
5–12–11–6 and 6–12–11–7). Hence, it results in nine tetra-
hedrons and the number of global schemes of discretization
is 4. All these tetrahedral elements are interconnected
and are separated from each other by common triangular
faces (planes of velocity discontinuity). These basic SERR
blocks in their totality have 28 triangular bounding faces.
Application of Eq. (3) to all these faces yield 28 velocity
equations which in turn give an equal number of velocity
components upon simultaneous solution (discretization
details summarized in Table 1).
Fig. 3. One half of the deformation zone.
502 R.K. Sahoo et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 138 (2003) 499–504

Table 1 Since, velocity discontinuity |DVi| and |DVj| are constant over
Summary of discretization schemes all the faces, it can be written as
Item Single point formulation s0 X
J ¼ pffiffiffi ½jDVi jAi þ mjDVj jAfj  (10)
Type of sub-zones 2 pyramids and 5 tetrahedrons 3
No. of SERR blocks 22þ51¼9
No. of discretization schemes 22¼4 The non-dimensional average extrusion pressure is then
No. of triangular faces 28 written as
No. of velocity components 9  3 ¼ 27 for 9 SERR þ 1 at exit,
total ¼ 28 Pav J
¼ (11)
s0 A0 Vb s0

4. Application of the upper-bound theorem

The upper-bound theorem predicts an over-estimate of the
power necessary to perform the desired metal forming
operation at the prescribed billet velocity. The assumptions
made regarding the geometry of the deformation zone, the
nature and location of the planes of velocity discontinuity
and other such modeling features make the associated
kinematically admissible velocity field rather arbitrary
and many such velocity fields can be found which satisfy
the boundary and plasticity requirements. Further, for any
possible velocity field there also exists an associated total
power. When the velocity field used is the actual one, the
associated power is the minimum (and therefore the actual).
This is the essence of the upper-bound theorem. Thus, when
the power associated with an arbitrary but kinematically
admissible velocity field is optimized, the power approaches
the actual.
The formal statement of the upper-bound theorem is that
among all kinematically admissible velocity fields, the
actual one minimizes the work function J, where
J ¼ J1 þ J2 þ J3
5. Solution process
A comprehensive computational model was developed to
make an upper-bound analysis for extrusion of triangle
section bars from round billets. The special features of
the proposed solution are incorporated in this model as
explained earlier. The solution process consists of the fol-
lowing steps:
(i) Generation of data for each triangular face in the
assembly of tetrahedrons.
(ii) Determination of the coefficients of equations repre-
senting the planes on which the bounding faces in the
assembly of tetrahedrons lie.
(iii) Determination of the coefficients of the velocity
equations applying the mass continuity condition to
all the faces.
(iv) Computation of the deformation work using Eq. (10)
and the normalized extrusion pressure using Eq. (11).
(v) Optimization of the normalized extrusion pressure
using a multivariate unconstrained optimization rou-
(5) tine.

where
Z rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 6. Optimization parameter
2s0 1
J1 ¼ pffiffiffi e_ ij e_ ij dv (6)
3 v 2 For the single point formulation, the floating point lies
is the work dissipated for internal deformation. on the plane of symmetry. Thus, in total there are two
Z undetermined co-ordinates, which serve as optimization
s0 parameters to minimize the extrusion pressure for this
J2 ¼ p ffiffi
ffi jDVi j dAi (7)
3 Ai formulation. Here, it is to be noted that the die length is
represented by the equivalent semi-cone angle. The equiva-
is the work dissipated at surfaces of velocity discontinuity lent semi-cone angle is defined as the semi-cone angle of a
(at the ith face). conical die where the reduction area is the same as that of
Z polygonal sections.
ms0
J3 ¼ pffiffiffi jDVj j dAfj (8)
3 Afj

is the work dissipated due to friction at the die–workpiece 7. Results and discussion
interface (jth face).
In the present formulation with a discontinuous velocity Computations are carried out for all four discretization
field the strain rate components e_ ij are all zero inside the rigid schemes of triangle section and the scheme giving the least
blocks. This leads to upper bound is identified. The discretized deformation zone
corresponding to the least upper bound is named here as
J1 ¼ 0 (9) the optimum configuration. This optimum configuration is
 R.K. Sahoo et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 138 (2003) 499–504
Fig. 4. Effect of friction on the extrusion pressure with variation of die
angle.
utilized for computation of normalized extrusion pressures
at various (i) semi-cone angles, and (ii) area reductions at
different friction factors (Figs. 4 and 5). It is clear from the
figures that the optimal semi-cone angle increases with the
increase of friction. These results can be used to predict
the forming load and optimal die shape for designing the sec-
tioned die, assessing the frictional condition either through
an empirical way or by a simulation test.
Fig. 5. Effect of friction on the extrusion pressure with variation in
reduction of area.
503
Fig. 6. Comparison of the present solution.
Comparison of the present solution (m ¼ 0:4) is also
made with homogeneous compression, slip line field solu-
tion and experimental results of Johnson [11] and Chitkara
and Adeyemi [12] at different fraction area reduction
(Fig. 6). This comparison shows that the present method
is reasonably good and can be used to model non-axisym-
metric extrusion through the straightly converging dies.
8. Conclusions
From the present investigation the following conclusions
are drawn:
(1) Using this solution, the optimal die geometry (equiva-
lent semi-cone angle) can be obtained for different area
reductions and friction conditions.
(2) Comparison made with existing theoretical and experi-
mental results shows that the present solution can
predict reasonable upper-bound extrusion pressure.
(3) The present method can be extended to obtain the
solution of generalized problems of non-axisymmetric
extrusion or drawing through converging dies.
References
[1] V. Nagpal, T. Altan, Analysis of the three-dimensional metal
flow in extrusion of shapes with the use of dual stream function,
in: Proceedings of the Third North American Metal Research
Conference on Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1975, pp. 26–40.
[2] B.B. Basily, D.H. Sansome, Some theoretical considerations for the
direct drawing of section rod from round bar, Int. J. Mech. Sci. 18
(1979) 201–209.
504 R.K. Sahoo et al. / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 138 (2003) 499–504
[3] D.Y. Yang, C.H. Lee, Analysis of three-dimensional extrusion of
sections through curved dies by conformal transformations, Int. J.
Mech. Sci. 20 (1978) 541–549.
[4] R. Prakash, O.H. Khan, An analysis of plastic flow through
polygonal converging dies with generalised boundaries of the zone
of plastic deformation, Int. J. Mach. Tool Des. Res. 19 (1979) 1–10.
[5] C.B. Boer, W.R. Schneider, B. Avitzur, An upper bound approach for
the direct drawing of square section rod from round bar, in:
Proceedings of the 20th International Machine Tool Design and
Research Conference, Birmingham, 1980, pp. 149–155.
[6] J.S. Gunasekera, S. Hosino, Analysis of extrusion or drawing of
polygonal sections through straightly conversing dies, J. Engng. Ind.
Trans. ASME 104 (1982) 38–43.
[7] C.M. Lee, D.Y. Yang, M.U. Kim, Numerical analysis of 3D extrusion
of arbitrarily shaped sections by the method of weighted residuals,
Int. J. Mech. Sci. 32 (1990) 65–82.
[8] F. Gatto, A. Giarda, The characteristics of three-dimensional analysis
of plastic deformation according to the SERR method, Int. J. Mech.
Sci. 23 (1981) 129–138.
[9] P.K. Kar, N.S. Das, Upper bound analysis of extrusion of I-section
bars from square/rectangular billets through square dies, Int. J. Mech.
Sci. 39 (1997) 925–934.
[10] P.K. Kar, R.K. Sahoo, Application of the SERR technique to the
analysis of extrusion of sections from round billets, J. Inst. Engrs.
(India) 78 (1997) 151–154.
[11] W. Johnson, Experiments in the cold extrusion of rods of non-
circular sections, J. Mech. Ph. Solids 5 (1957) 267–273.
[12] N.R. Chitkara, M.B. Adeyemi, Working pressure and deformation
modes in forward extrusion of I and T shaped sections from square
sludges, in: Proceedings of the Eighth IMTDR Conference, London,
1977, pp. 39–46.