In the present work, experimental techniques for evaluating the deformation and the redundant work factor in the axisymmetric drawing of ferritic AISI 420 stainless steel bars were investigated. Six operation conditions, involving two reductions of area and three die semi-angles, were employed in the study. Regarding the redundant deformation analysis, the visioplasticity technique was considered as the most adequate procedure for estimating the average deformation in drawing. In this case, an increasing relationship between the redundant deformation factor and the parameter D was obtained. On the other hand, the stress-strain curves superposition technique led to redundant deformation factor values almost insensitive to variations of the parameter D and below unity, a phenomenon which was associated with strain path effects. Concerning the redundant work factor study, the experimental results were lower than those obtained through a theoretical approach and, in some conditions, below unity. This was also attributed to strain path effects.KEY WORDS: drawing; average strain; visioplasticity; redundant deformation factor; redundant work factor.
63© 2008 ISIJ ones, employing a previously obtained relationship between hardness and strain. This approach, however, is not evaluated in this work and, therefore, no details are given in the text. For more information see Refs. 4), 6), 9).The visioplasticity, also called incremental grid method, 8,9) was originally proposed by Thomsen,11) based on the establishment of a velocity vector field on the meridian plane of the metal, followed by the calculation of the complete distribution of strain rate, strain and stress. The process is carried out by placing a grid pattern in the internal plane surfaces of sectioned samples. As plastic deformation is conducted, the rate of distortion of the grid lines is evaluated, and subsequent analysis is performed employing equilibrium and plasticity equations. Therefore, contrasting with the stress-strain curves superposition and the hardness profile methods, the results obtained in visioplasticity are non-dependent of the measurement of the mechanical properties of the metal after the processing. In addition to providing detailed information concerning the forming operation, this technique may act as a kind of calibration procedure, whose results would be used for checking the accuracy of solutions obtained through other investigative methods. 14,15) On the other hand, even though the visioplasticity has been considered as the experimental procedure leading to the most realistic solutions to various processes, 11) the time consuming calculations and the requirement of smoothing procedures for treating the experimental data seem to have restrained the use of the method, seldom employed in recent investigations concerning metal forming operations. 12) In the case of axisymmetric drawing, as far as the present authors know, the analyses have been performed only for few materials and process parameters, 8,9) with no reference to the calculat...