Effect of cold drawing pass schedule on mechanical properties and microstructure of ST 52 during cold drawing of seamless tubes and its influence on springback

Abstract

In-elastic recovery behavior of seamless tube material has been investigated by uniaxial tensile tests. Unloading Stress-Strain curves obtained under different passes of cold drawing process shows that the percentage of in-elastic recovery to the total recovery increased with plastic deformation. This paper is an experimental study that shows Young's Modulus decreases with plastic strain for ST 52 material. It is found that with increase in plastic strain, Young's Modulus reduces rapidly initially then reduces more slowly and finally settles to stable value due to increase in plastic deformation and ultimately increased residual stresses. This variation of Young's' Modulus is related to internal stresses, residual stresses, micro cracks, dislocations during plastic deformation. Similarly, Scan Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Micro-hardness testing reveals that mechanical properties are better in the first pass sample of multiple cold drawing passes. The results of this study reveals that 10-20% degradation occurs in Young's Modulus for 5-7% plastic strain and better mechanical properties are achieved in the first pass sample.