Experimental and numerical analysis of rotary tube piercing process for producing thick-walled tubes of nickel-base superalloy

Abstract In order to overcome the problems of existing methods for preparing thick-walled tubes of nickel-base superalloy (TWNS), the rotary tube piercing (RTP) process was proposed. For this purpose, an improved piercing mill was designed, and the influences of process parameters on strain, temperature, biting condition, lose stability of mandrel, defects control and microstructure distribution were studied by the combination of finite element model (FEM) and experiments. Based on the control variable method, the ranges of process parameters corresponding to the second biting condition and the critical condition of mandrel instability were determined by the simulation results. The experiment results indicate that the external separation layer defect (ESLD) is significantly affected by roll speed and reduction rate. The internal separation layer defect (ISLD) is mainly controlled by reduction rate. The preferred process parameters are determined as temperature 1040℃, reduction rate 13 %, roll speed 35 rpm, feed angle 8°, cross angle 15°, and plug advance against gorge 12 mm. The equiaxed grains with average grain size of 25 μm are obtained due to the complete dynamic recrystallization (DRX) process.