Analysis of Powder Compaction Process Using Multi-Particle Finite Element Method

Cold compaction is an essential step of the powder metallurgy process, which is cost-effective in the manufacturing industry. In the present study, the compaction of pure iron powder is investigated. A MATLAB code is developed to create a representative volume element with a given size distribution, number of particles, and initial relative density. The finite element analysis is performed by implementing an ABAQUS/Explicit python script. Multi-particle finite element analysis of compaction is employed to analyze the deformation of the particles into the green body. The effects of loading path, geometry configuration, and wall friction on punch force, axial and transverse stresses, strains, and yield surface are discussed. The results indicate that wall friction affects the load, stress state, and yield surface. It was found that, with the increase of the wall friction from 0.0 to 0.2, the compaction force increases by 14.70%. Also, the difference between the upper and lower RVE face forces increases from 1.01% to 16.27%. Changing the loading path from the compression to the hydrostatic compaction decreases the compaction force by 57.7% in upper and 65.75% in lower RVE faces, while the axial stress decreases by 27.70% and the transverse stress increases by 40.41%. The volume strain of compaction is smaller by 35.33% than that of hydrostatic compression.