Modeling and Experimental Analysis of Shear-Slitting of AA6111-T4 Aluminum Alloy Sheet

This work presents experimental studies with numerical modeling, aiming at the development of guidelines for shaping aluminum alloy AA6111-T4, <i>t</i> = 1.5 mm thick, with the use of a shear-slitting operation. During the experimental tests, parametric analyses were conducted for the selected material thickness. For the purposes of the material deformation's analysis, a vision system based on the digital image correlation (DiC) method was used. Numerical models were developed with the use of finite element analysis (FEA) and the mesh-free method: smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), which were used to analyze the residual stress and strain in the cutting zone at different process conditions. The results indicate a significant effect of the horizontal clearance between knives on the width of the deformation zone on sheet cut edge. Together with the clearance value increase, the deformation zone increases. The highest burrs on the cut edge were obtained, when the slitting speed was set to <i>v</i> = 17 m/min, and clearance to <i>h_c</i> = 6%<i>t</i>. A strong influence was observed of the horizontal clearance value at high slitting speeds on burr unshapeliness. The most favorable conditions were obtained for <i>v</i> = 32 m/min, <i>h_c</i> = 0.062 mm, and rake angle of upper knife for <i>α</i> = 30°. For this configuration, a smooth sheared edge with minimal burr height was obtained.