Computational Materials Science 49 (2010) 293–298

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Computational Materials Science

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On the selection of outlet channel length and billet length in equal channel
angular extrusion
Hao Li a,b, Saiyi Li b,*, Donghong Zhang a
a
School of Mechanical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China
b
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The deformation behavior during equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE) of a typical strain hardening
Received 10 April 2010 material with different combinations of outlet channel length and billet length is simulated using the
Received in revised form 27 April 2010 finite element method (FEM). The results are evaluated in terms of the strain heterogeneity along the lon-
Accepted 4 May 2010
gitudinal direction, the shape of the deformed billet, and the working load. It is shown that a shorter out-
Available online 9 June 2010
let channel leads to a longer steady-state region and a lower working load, but a higher tendency of
upward bending of the deformed billet. The portion of the steady-state region in the billet increases with
Keywords:
the billet length-to-width ratio until the ratio reaches a critical value. These effects are essentially attrib-
Equal channel angular extrusion
Finite element
uted to the variation of friction forces operative in the outlet and inlet channels. For a given die design,
Deformation less friction conduces to a longer steady-state region but a higher tendency of upward bending of the
Die design billet.
Friction Ó 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction gion, wherein the deformation is uniform along the longitudinal

Equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE) is a promising technol-
ogy that can be applied to process ultra-fine grained materials in
bulk form [1,2]. In ECAE, intense plastic strain is imparted into
the material when it passes through two channels intersecting at
an angle (die angle U, see Fig. 1). Because the ECAE process is rel-
atively simple and may be scaled up to process relatively large
samples, it has the potential to become a commercial metal-pro-
cessing procedure [3]. To date, many theoretical (analytical or
numerical) and experimental studies have been conducted to
investigate the deformation behavior in ECAE, which is essential
for understanding the microstructure and mechanical properties
of the deformed materials. Compared to other theoretical analyses,
such as the slip line analysis [3], flow-line analyses [4–6], and
upper-bound analyses [7,8], numerical modeling based on the fi-
nite element method (FEM) has been extensively considered to
evaluate the effect of various influential factors on the deformation
behavior in ECAE, including: (i) material constitutive behavior
(strain hardening or softening, strain-rate sensitivity) (see e.g. Refs.
[9–13]); (ii) die geometry (die angle, outer corner angle, moving
die) [9,11–16]; and (iii) processing variables (friction, backpres-
sure, temperature) [9,11,14–23].
To improve the processing efficiency in ECAE, it is often desir-
able to process long billets with a large portion of steady-state re-
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 731 88876621; fax: +86 731 88876692.
E-mail address: saiyi@mail.csu.edu.cn (S. Li).
direction. It is also desirable to minimize the outlet channel
length to save energy and material for tool making. Primary con-
cerns in the previous FEM studies were the effects of die angle,
outer corner angle and friction conditions on the strain inhomo-
geneity in the deformed billets. Comparatively, very limited
attention has been paid to the effects of outlet channel length
and billet length. Li et al. [11] have shown for a strain hardening
material processed under a prescribed friction condition that a
decrease of either (or both) of these lengths can lead to a reduc-
tion in the contact surface between the billet and the channel,
and thus promote the formation of a longer steady-state zone
in the deformed billet. Kim et al. [24] concluded, also for a strain
hardening material but under frictionless condition, that the
length of the billet should not be smaller than four times of its
width in order to achieve a steady-state region in one pass of
ECAE. Meanwhile, Ferrasse et al. [25] suggested on the basis of
slip line analyses that the length-to-width (or diameter) ratio of
the billet should be less than 6–10 in order to reduce the break-
age or buckling of the punch. So far, all these investigations con-
sidered only a particular case of friction condition and did not
inspect the effects of the outlet channel length and the billet
length on other important aspects of deformation behavior, such
as the shape of the deformed billet and the working load, which
are of great interest for industrial applications. Very recently,
Yoon et al. [13] have shown by comparison of FEM simulations
for a strain-rate sensitive material without strain hardening
during ECAE using two different outlet channel lengths that

0927-0256/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.commatsci.2010.05.009
294 H. Li et al. / Computational Materials Science 49 (2010) 293–298

additional simulations were performed with l = 0.05 to evaluate

the effect of friction condition.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Effect of outlet channel length

The effect of the outlet channel length on the billet deformation

Fig. 1. Schematic of the ECAE process.
increasing the outlet channel length is an important way to re-
duce the bending of the workpiece.
The objective of the present study was to evaluate more sys-
tematically the effects of the outlet channel length and the billet
length on the deformation behavior in ECAE. For this purpose,
two-dimensional (2D) FEM simulations were performed for one
pass ECAE of a strain hardening material under realistic friction
conditions, using dies with U = 90°. The results obtained may aid
the selection of the length-to-width ratios of the outlet channel
and the billet during ECAE process design.
is shown in Fig. 2 by comparing the distributions of the equivalent
plastic strain in the billets simulated for ECAE with the outlet chan-
nel length Le varying from 0.5w to 4w, and with Lb = 8w and l = 0.1.
It can be seen that in all cases the deformation in the leading end of
the billet is very inhomogeneous. The main differences between
these cases lie in the deformation in the middle region of the billet.
For Le = 4w (Fig. 2a), there is only a short part of the billet (with a
length of about 2w) that depicts a quasi-steady state with roughly
uniform deformation along the extrusion direction (i.e. horizontal
direction in the figure). Severe deformation occurs at the bottom
region of the billet near the outer die corner. Although the strain
distribution along the extrusion direction becomes more uniform
with a decrease of Le to 2w (Fig. 2b), a steady-state region is still
not evident; at the meantime, a gap between the billet and the out-
er corner of the die starts to develop. For Le = w (Fig. 2c) and
Le = 0.5w (Fig. 2d), the strain distribution along the extrusion direc-
tion becomes quite uniform in the middle of the billet. The uni-
formly deformed region (indicated in the figure by the dashed
lines) can be considered as a steady-state region, which is appar-

2. Finite element simulations

In this study, FEM simulations of a single ECAE pass assuming

plane strain conditions were carried out using the commercial soft-
ware ABAQUS [26]. The stress–strain curve of the hypothetical
material considered in the simulations was the same as that used
by Li et al. [11]. It was assumed to be elastic–plastic with a yield
stress of 31 MPa and strain hardening defined by

r ¼ 250ðep Þ0:335 þ 31 ð1Þ

p
where r is the flow stress (in MPa) and e the equivalent plastic
strain. The material was assumed to have elastic properties with a
Young’s modulus of 110 GPa and a Poisson’s ratio of 0.35, which
are typical for copper.
As illustrated in Fig. 1, the present study considered an ECAE
die-set with U = 90° and a sharp outer corner. The width of the bil-
let, denoted as w, was set to be 10 mm. Both the inlet and outlet
channels have the same width as that of the billet. The inner corner
fillet radius was set to be 0.025w. The length of the outlet channel
(Le) was set as 0.5w, w, 2w, and 4w, respectively. To investigate the
effect of billet length, simulations were carried out with the billet
length (Lb) of 6w, 8w, 10w, and 12w, respectively. A fillet with ra-
dius of 0.2w was assigned to the outer side corner of the billet head
to facilitate the start of a simulation. A fillet with radius of 0.1w
was attached to the top and bottom ends of the outlet channel to
avoid convergence difficulties that may arise when the billet exits
the outlet channel. The die and the punch were treated as rigid
bodies and the billet was represented using 4-node plane strain
element. Meanwhile, the friction between the billet and the die
was modeled using the Coulomb’s friction law. According to exper-
imental validations in a considerable number of room-temperature
ECAE processing in the literature (see e.g. Refs. [9,22,23]), a realis-
tic range of the friction coefficient (l) in well-lubricated ECAE con- Fig. 2. Distributions of equivalent plastic strain in billets simulated for ECAE with
ditions is considered to be 0.05–0.1. Hence, for all cases studied the Lb = 8w, l = 0.1, but different outlet channel lengths: (a) Le = 4w; (b) Le = 2w; (c)
simulations were performed with l = 0.1 and for selected cases Le = w; (d) Le = 0.5w. The steady-state region is indicated by dashed lines.
 H. Li et al. / Computational Materials Science 49 (2010) 293–298 295

ently longer in the case of Le = 0.5w than that of Le = w. However, in

the former case a slight upward bending of the workpiece can be
noted (Fig. 2d). Overall, a shorter outlet channel promotes a more
stable material flow and consequently a longer steady-state region.
This effect is directly associated with the less localized deformation
near the bottom of the billet when Le is smaller. Meanwhile, it is
also possible to see that the size of the outer corner gap increases
with the decrease of the outlet channel length. The formation of
the outer corner gap can generally be explained by the combined
effect of the friction and the strain hardening of the material
[11,12]. Since the same material was considered in these simula-
tions, this increase of the corner gap size with the decrease of
the outlet channel length is apparently attributed to the reduced
friction forces in the outlet channel.
To understand the effect of the outlet channel length on the bil-
let deformation, the punch load–displacement curves are com-
pared in Fig. 3 for the cases with Le = 4w and Le = w, as examples.
As indicated in the figure, different stages can be distinguished
from the variation of the load with the displacement. To further
illustrate the deformation behavior in the different stages, Fig. 4
shows the distributions of the equivalent plastic strain at the tran-
sitions between these stages for the case of Le = 4w. For Le = 4w, five
stages can be distinguished in Fig. 3. In stage I, the head of the billet
bends around the die corner and then enters into the outlet chan-
nel (Fig. 4a). In this stage, the load increases rapidly to a maximum
value. In stage II, the non-uniformly deformed head exits the die
corner, leading to a rapid decrease in the load. The decrease in
the load is slowed down in stage III. During this stage, the increase
of the friction force in the outlet channel constraints the flow of
material at the bottom, leading to a reduction of the gap between
the billet and the outer corner (compare Fig. 4b and c). In stage IV,
the friction force in the outlet channel is so large that the load be- Fig. 4. Distributions of equivalent plastic strain at a punch displacement of: (a)
gins to increase again. This, in turn, leads to significant straining 0.5w; (b) 1.2w; (c) 3w; and (d) 4.5w, respectively, simulated for ECAE with Lb = 8w,
Le = 4w, and l = 0.1. See Fig. 2 for the legend.
near the bottom wall and consequently the destruction of the stea-
dy state (Fig. 4d). In stage V the head of billet exits the outlet chan-
nel and the load decreases again, due to the decrease of the total sible to see that stage III in the case of Le = w actually covers the to-
contact area between the billet and the channel. In the case of tal displacement as that of stages III–V in the case of Le = 4w.
Le = w, only three stages can be distinguished (Fig. 3). In stages I It can be anticipated from these results that the material flow in
and II, the change of load and the evolution of plastic strain are ECAE is significantly influenced by the friction forces in the outlet
essentially the same as those of the case with Le = 4w. In stage III, channel. More precisely, a shorter outlet channel leads to smaller
the head of the billet exits the outlet channel and the load de- friction forces in the outlet channel and consequently less localized
creases continuously. During this stage, a steady-state region forms deformation in the billet near the bottom wall. From this point of
and develops until the end of the simulation (see Fig. 2c). It is pos- view, a shorter outlet channel is desired not only for saving the
material in tool-making but also for achieving a longer steady-state
region in a billet with a given initial length. For the strain harden-
ing material and friction condition considered in the simulations,
Le = 0.5w to w is a reasonable range to consider. It is worthy to
mention that Yoon et al. [13] have investigated the effect of the
outlet channel length on the billet deformation for a strain-rate
sensitive material. They showed that the workpiece bent signifi-
cantly in the case of Le = w, but did not bend in the case of
Le = 4w. Thus, comparison of the present results and those of Yoon
et al. indicates that a longer outlet channel is required for a strain-
rate sensitive material than a strain-rate insensitive material in or-
der to avoid significant bending of the deformed billet. This differ-
ence might be attributed to the more localized straining at the
bottom side of the billet with an increase of strain-rate sensitivity
[13].

3.2. Effect of billet length

To illustrate the effect of the billet length, Fig. 5 shows the dis-
tribution of the equivalent plastic strain simulated with Le = 0.5w
Fig. 3. Comparison of punch load–displacement curves simulated for ECAE with and l = 0.1 for billets with Lb = 6w, 8w, 10w, and 12w, respectively.
Lb = 8w, l = 0.1, but different outlet channel lengths (Le = 4w vs. Le = w). Le = 0.5w is chosen because it is an appropriate value for the main-
296 H. Li et al. / Computational Materials Science 49 (2010) 293–298

Fig. 5. Distributions of equivalent plastic strain in billets simulated for ECAE with Le = 0.5w, l = 0.1, but different billet lengths: (a) Lb = 6w; (b) Lb = 8w; (c) Lb = 10w; (d)
Lb = 12w.

tenance of a reasonably long region of steady-state deformation l = 0.1 yield similar tendencies about the effect of the billet length
(see Section 3.1). It is seen that in these cases the deformation on the deformation behavior as for Le = 0.5w; however, the optimal
behavior of the billets varies not only in the strain distribution
along the extrusion direction but also in the shape of the deformed
billets. For Lb = 6w (Fig. 5a), the deformed billet depicts a clear stea-
dy-state region of deformation and is very straight (except for the
leading end of the billet). With an increase of Lb to 8w (Fig. 5b) and
then to 10w (Fig. 5c), the length of the steady-state region in-
creases steadily at an expense of a more apparent upward bending
of the billet. When Lb reaches up to 12w (Fig. 5d), a large gap ap-
pears between the billet and the top wall of the outlet channel near
the inner corner, and the upward bending of the billet becomes
very significant; in this case, the steady state is clearly destroyed
near the end of the simulation due to the severe deformation near
the inner and outer corner regions. Eventually the length of the
steady-state region in the case of Lb = 12w turns out to be approx-
imately the same as that of Lb = 10w.
It is important to note that the effect of the billet length on the
material flow in these cases is mainly ascribed to the increase of
friction forces in the inlet channel rather than those in the outlet
channel. For a longer billet, it has to overcome a larger friction
force to move towards the die corner and undergoes a more severe
and heterogeneous deformation in the inlet channel (see Fig. 5). It
is also found from the simulation results that the punch load in-
creases significantly with the billet length. An important result
from these simulations is that, for a given outlet channel length
which is short enough to minimize the friction force in the outlet
channel, a longer billet does not necessarily lead to a longer stea-
dy-state region in the billet but more apparent bending and signif-
icant increase in the working load. In the present conditions
(Le = 0.5w and l = 0.1), a billet length of about 8w is recommended
in the process design in order to achieve a long steady-state region Fig. 6. Distributions of equivalent plastic strain in billets simulated for ECAE with
of deformation while avoiding significant upward bending and in- Lb = 8w, l = 0.05, but different outlet channel lengths: (a) Le = 4w; (b) Le = 2w; (c)
crease in the working load. Additional simulations with Le = w and Le = w; (d) Le = 0.5w. See Fig. 5 for the legend.
 H. Li et al. / Computational Materials Science 49 (2010) 293–298
billet length is further reduced with the increase of Le due to a
more significant influence of the friction forces.
These results indicate that the ECAE technique, at least in its
classical form or simple design as shown in Fig. 1, is essentially
not efficient in processing billets with a very large length-to-width
(or diameter) ratio. In reality, this ratio has often been limited to 4–
6 for small sized (i.e. small w) billets. In some studies on scaling up
of the ECAE process, this ratio was even set to be as low as 2.5 for
large sized billets [27]. ECAE with such a small billet length-to-
width ratio might be of little interest for applications as no steady
state deformation region could be expected in the processed bil-
lets. Meanwhile, the problem of limited billet length might be
partly solved by using movable die walls in the design or using
the so-called continuous ECAE technique (see a review by Valiev
and Langdon [1]). In the later case, however, the die angle is usu-
ally set to be much larger than 90°, and therefore the strain intro-
duced in each pass is considerably lower than in conventional
ECAE. It is also worthwhile to note that in practical ECAE, a suc-
cessful processing of a longer billet requires a longer inlet channel
and consequently a longer punch. It is then necessary to ensure in
the design that the punch has sufficient strength and stability to
process the billet without failure [25].
3.3. Effect of friction
So far, we have shown the effects of outlet channel length and
billet length on the deformation behavior during ECAE under a gi-
ven friction condition with l = 0.1. These effects are closely related
with the friction forces or, essentially, the effective contact length
(in 2D) or area (in 3D) between the billet and the inlet or outlet
channel. It is of interest to inspect how such effects vary with
the friction condition by changing the friction coefficient consid-
ered in the simulations. To illustrate the effect of the friction con-
dition, Fig. 6 shows for example the distribution of the equivalent
plastic strain in billets simulated with l = 0.05, Lb = 8w, and with
the outlet channel length varying from 4w to 0.5w.
It can be seen that, in great contrast to those simulated with
l = 0.1 (Fig. 2), the billets can maintain a steady state of deforma-
tion until the end of the simulations in all cases with l = 0.05
(Fig. 6). In the later condition, the effect of the outlet channel
length on the billet deformation lies mainly in the shape of the de-
formed billet, which is straight in the case of Le = 4w (Fig. 6a) and
Le = 2w (Fig. 6b), but bend upward slightly in the case of Le = w
(Fig. 6c) and significantly for Le = 0.5w (Fig. 6d). The bending of
the billet can be attributed to the lack of the constraint from the
outlet channel and the heterogeneous stress distributions in the
top and bottom sides of the extruded billet. Comparison of the re-
sults in Figs. 2 and 6 further reveals that the billet is more prone to
upward bending when the l value is smaller. Accordingly, a longer
outlet channel should be adopted to avoid upward bending and to
achieve a similar length of steady-state region as of a higher l va-
lue. To process sufficiently straight billets and to save the material
in tool making, the optimal length of the outlet channel turns to be
around 2w in the case of l = 0.05, compared to 0.5w in the case of
l = 0.1. Overall, for a material with moderate strain hardening as
considered in the present work, it is desired to adopt an outlet
channel length of about 0.5w when l = 0.1, but an outlet channel
length of about 2w when l = 0.05 from the viewpoint of cost saving
(i.e. reducing working load and material for tool-making) and pro-
duction efficiency (i.e. increasing the portion of steady-state region
and avoiding bending of the billet). In both cases, it is not recom-
mended to adopt a billet longer than 8w.
It should be noted that although the present FEM simulations
on the effects of the outlet channel length and the billet length con-
sidered only a particular strain hardening material processed with
a given die angle and under typical realistic friction conditions,
297
they can be readily extended to consider more systematically other
aspects of material properties (e.g. strain-rate sensitivity and strain
hardening) and processing variables (e.g. die angle and outer cor-
ner angle) to guide the process design for specific applications.
For example, useful information about the effect of the strain-rate
sensitivity and the outer corner angle on the bending of the work-
piece may be found in the work of Yoon et al. [13].
4. Conclusions
FEM simulations were carried out to evaluate the effects of out-
let channel length and billet length on the deformation behavior
during ECAE of a strain hardening material under realistic friction
conditions. The effects were evaluated in terms of the strain heter-
ogeneity along the longitudinal direction, the shape of the de-
formed billet, and the punch load–displacement curves, and
discussed in connection with the friction forces in the outlet and
inlet channels. The following conclusions can be drawn from the
results:
1. The effect of the outlet channel length is attributed to the
friction forces in the outlet channel. A shorter outlet channel
generally leads to a longer steady-state region and a lower
working load, but a higher tendency of upward bending of
the deformed billet.
2. The relative length of the steady-state region generally
increases with the billet length-to-width ratio; however, it
does not increase further when the billet length-to-width
ratio reaches a critical value due to severe heterogeneous bil-
let deformation in the inlet channel.
3. The effects of the outlet channel length and the billet length
on the deformation behavior vary with the friction condition.
Less friction conduces to a longer steady-state region but a
higher tendency of the upward bending of the billet.
4. For the typical strain hardening material under realistic fric-
tion condition (l = 0.05–0.1), a billet length-to-width ratio of
about 8 and an outlet channel length-to-width ratio of 0.5–2
are recommended for the sake of both cost saving and pro-
duction efficiency.
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foun-
dation of China (50871040) and the Program for New Century
Excellent Talents (NCET-06-0741).
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