Effects of Forging Process Parameters on Microstructure Evolution of Aluminum Alloy 7050

The objective of this work is to investigate the behavior of microstructure evolution of aluminum alloy 7050 under the condition of different forging process parameters by means of combining materials physical model with finite element code. For the purpose of establishing constitutive equation and physical model of microstructure evolution, the isothermal compression test were performed by machine Gleeble 1500 on the condition of temperatures ranging from 250 deg. C to 450 deg. C and constant strain rates of 0.01s-1, 0.1s-1, 1s-1 and 10s-1. The behaviors of microstructure evolutions of aluminum alloy 7050 under difference process parameters were studied by metallographic observations. The experiment results showed that recrystallization during forming process occurred at the critical strain and the volume fraction of recrystallization changed with the temperature and strain rate. According to the results of isothermal compression test, a constitutive equation and an empirical model of DRX were obtained. A finite element code DEFORM 3D was used to analyze the influence of different forging process parameters on the behavior of microstructure evolution in details. The present model and simulation method can be served as a useful tool to predict and control the properties and shape of aluminum alloy 7050 components during forging