Influences of lubricant pocket geometry and working conditions upon micro lubrication mechanisms in upsetting and strip drawing

Micro-lubricant pockets located in the surface of plastically deforming workpieces are recognised to improve the performance of fluid lubrication in a metal-forming process. This work investigates the joint influence of pocket geometry and process working conditions on micro-lubrication mechanisms, during upsetting and strip drawing, by means of a rigid-viscoplastic finite-element formulation. Special emphasis is placed on the effect of pocket geometry on the build-up of hydrostatic pressure, which is responsible for the onset of micro-lubrication mechanisms. A good agreement is found between the numerically predicted and the experimentally measured distributions of hydrostatic stress.