Some aspects on workability of aluminium–iron powder metallurgy composite during cold upsetting

Workability is a measure of the extent of deformation that a powder metallurgy materials can withstand prior to fracture occurred in the forming or upsetting processes. Ductile fracture is the most common mode of failure in bulk forming process. The formability is a complicated phenomenon, dependent upon the process as well as the material parameters. A complete experimental investigation on the workability behaviour of Al–Fe composite was performed under the triaxial stress state. Upsetting of Al–Fe composite having different iron contents with different aspect ratios and iron particle sizes were carried out and the formability behaviour of the compacts at triaxial stress condition was determined. A new true strain considering the effect of the bulging was taken in to account. The curves plotted for different compacts were analyzed and concluded that there is a drastic changes in the formability behaviour of compacts because of different content of iron and its particle sizes and aspect ratios.