An upper-bound analysis for frictionless TCAP process

Tubular channel angular pressing (TCAP) process was proposed recently as a novel severe plastic deformation technique for producing ultrafine grain and nanostructured tubular components. In this paper, an upper-bound approach was used to analyze the TCAP process. Deformation of the material during TCAP process is analyzed using upper-bound analysis to determine maximum required load. The effects of TCAP parameters such as channel and curvature angles, deformation ratio (R1/R2) and tube material on the process pressure were investigated. The results showed that an increase in the second channel angle and decrease in the ratio R1/R2 lead to lower process loads. In the first and third curvature angles ranging from 25 to 65◦, the required load remains almost constant. The apparent punch load decrease when hardening exponent n is increased. To verify the theoretical results, the finite element (FE) modeling was employed. Good agreement was observed between the predicted pressure from upper-bound analysis and FE results.