Forged Aluminum Alloy Wheel Design And Extrusion Processing Research

In order to solve the global energy problems, reducing vehicle weight, the reductionof fuel consumption has become the key idea to improve the competitiveness for the majorautomobile manufacturers. The main way to reduce vehicle gravity is lightweightautomotive materials. As one of the few lightweight automotive materials, aluminum isused most for its unique performance advantages in the automotive industry. Therefore,under the conditions of meeting the necessary stiffness, strength and fatigue life of thealuminum alloy wheels, lightweight desigh seems particularly urgent. The castingaluminrm alloy wheels are prone to have shrinkage, porosity, and reduce the mechanicalproperties of the wheels. For seeking a better forming process of aluminum alloy wheels,this article focuses on the design of alloy wheels ,the extrusion process, and the foracast ofgrain size after the extrusion.In this paper, to achieve the light weight requirements, the extrusion idea for thealuminum alloy wheels is put forward, as plastic deformation can change theorganizational structure of the products, improve the mechanical properties of aluminumalloy wheels. First of all,the finite element simulation of the bench test on alloy wheels hasbeen studied, including the impact strength test and bending test. The results show that thisaluminum alloy wheel is up to grade in the structure and aspect.Secondly, the design of the extrusion die is also under the way. In order to get a goodextrusion die design, three performances are developed. The geometric model of the wheelis created through the three-dimensional modeling software UG, and the extrusion processthermal coupling model is established in the FORGE software. Through the analysis andevaluation for the indicators of the finite element thermal coupling model, a betterextrusion program is got, and then a further analysis of the forming quality of thepreferred option、equivalent strain field, temperature field, the foming force has been done.Finally, the wheel grain size has been done after the extrusion wheel using theFORGE simulation recrystalization platform. The result shows that the occurrence of dynamic recrystallization in the extrusion process, the simulated average grain size anddynamic recrystallization percentage is the idea.