Numerical, experimental, and analytical investigation of the skin contamination evolution in the extrusion of different industrial profiles

In the context of aluminum alloy extrusion, the presence of the skin contamination defect imposes the scrap of the contaminated profile length due to its lower mechanical properties. For understanding the evolution of the defect, comprehensive analyses, either experimental investigations or reliance on predictive techniques, are mandatory. Recently, numerical methods have gained interest in predicting the development of skin contamination, although their level of accuracy remains uncertain. This research focuses on a detailed experimental and numerical analysis of three different AA6XXX industrial extruded profiles. The aim is to compare the evolution of the skin contamination experimentally observed with the outcomes of the simulation using the commercial finite element code Qform Extrusion UK. The main findings of the analysis confirmed the potentiality and the accuracy of the numerical tools, also evidencing the current limitations of the empirical and analytical industrial practices.