Investigation of the effect of specimen size on the calibration curves of 6061-T6 alloy in ring compression test

Friction on the material surfaces is of great importance in the plastic forming processes of metals. The friction between the surfaces causes the force required for deformation to increase, which in turn causes the tool surfaces to wear out early and to be damaged, and it effects the flow of the deformed material, as well. For this reason friction should be controlled in the plastic forming processes of metals. One of the experiments used to examine the friction between surfaces for metal forming operations is the ring compression test. The test is performed by compressing the annular specimen between the flat dies of a press in which the specimen dimensions are recorded at regular intervals. The numerical value of the friction coefficient is determined by placing and comparing the measured dimensional data that are obtained by the experiments on the graph containing the friction calibration curves which are obtained theoretically. In this thesis, the friction calibration curves of the ring compression test for 6061-T6 Aluminium alloy were calculated with the finite element analysis by using commercial software in the computer environment, and the effect of specimen size on ring compression tests were examined via performing tests with specimens of different sizes which were produced from the same material. For the specimen sizes examined, it was seen that the ring compression test results were not affected by the specimen size.