The 2020 Spring International Conference on Defence Technology IOP Publishing

Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1507 (2020) 042004 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1507/4/042004

Mechanical properties of steel gun barrel processed by cold

radial forging with stepped mandrel under different forging
ratios

Yuzhao Yang, Xiaoyun Zhang, Lixia Fan*and Cheng Xu

School of Mechanical Engineering，Nanjing University of Science and Technology，

Nanjing 210094，China

Email: fanlixia151@njust.edu.cn

Abstract. Mechanical properties of 30SiMn2MoVA steel gun barrel processed by cold radial
forging with stepped mandrel under the different forging ratios were investigated in the present
work. This work mainly reported the axial and circumferential mechanical properties of forged
gun barrel before and after annealing. The axial and circumferential mechanical properties
were measured by tensile test and bulging test, respectively. The results suggested that the
strength was enhanced and elongation was decreased by forging which was caused by cold
work hardening. After annealing, the anisotropy of elongation was observed. The
circumferential elongation was weaker than the axial. With the increasing of forging ratios,
strength anisotropy was exacerbated gradually. The circumferential strength was inferior to the
axial. Besides, there were axial penetrating cracks in the failure state of circumferential bulging
test specimens. Through the electron microscopic examination, the axial micro cracks and
wrinkles in the inner wall of the forged tubes were observed. It showed that the cold radial
forging with stepped mandrel may result in the defect in the inner surface of the gun barrel
which should be paid attention.

1. Introduction
Radial forging is an open process to produce tubes and shafts. According to the appearance of the
mandrel surface, radial forging also can create internal features of tubes, for example, the rifling of
gun barrels. During the process, the diameter and thickness of tube blank will decrease under the
pressure of four high-speed hammers. There are many advantages of radial forging, such as high
efficiency, high precision, high surface quality and so on. Therefore, the radial forging has become the
main process to produce the gun barrel. And it has been investigated for many years. Many researches
have been done on radial forging by experiment and numerical simulation. Altan et al. [1] introduced
relationships to calculate the stress, required force and other parameters of radial forging. The two-
dimensional axisymmetric model [2] and the novel three-dimensional finite element model [3,4] were
developed to simulate the radial forging processing. Most studies focused on the process parameters
and the deformation of the tube [5-7]. Some researches were carried out about the effect of radial
forging on the mechanical properties. Baderestani et al. [8] reported the mechanical properties of
W500 tool steel multi-step bars were improved with the increase of strain by radial forging.
Arreolaherrera et al. [9] focused on the mechanical properties of 32 CDV 13 steel tube processed and
found that the strength and hardness increased with the growth of cold forging ratios. Chen [10]

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Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd 1
The 2020 Spring International Conference on Defence Technology IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1507 (2020) 042004 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1507/4/042004

studied the changes of structure and properties of 30CrNi2MoVA steel thick-walled pipe during cold
radial forging through experiments, and further analyzed the changes of hardness and tensile strength
of the pipe after cold radial forging. In addition to studying the properties of steel materials, some
researchers focused on the titanium alloy. Gubicza J [11] and Hu [12] obtained the same conclusion
that the mechanical properties of titanium alloy was increased by radial forging. And gradually, there
is a common view that radial forging usually makes changes of the material properties, such as the
increased strength and the decreased plasticity. However, most metals with large plastic deformation
were anisotropic which has been confirmed in the rolling processing [13,14]. Liu et al. [15] designed a
bulging test to obtain the circumferential mechanical properties of the radial forged barrel and
proposed the anisotropy in the cold radial forged barrel at first.
This work focused on the mechanical properties of 30SiMn2MoVA steel gun barrel processed by
cold radial forging with stepped mandrel under four forging ratios to explore the effect of radial
forging on the mechanical properties. Tensile test and bulging test were applied to obtain the axial and
circumferential mechanical properties of forged tubes. Meanwhile, electron microscope was employed
to check the inner wall of forged tubes to analyze the deformation of material.

2. Materials and methods

The mechanical properties of 30SiMn2MoVA steel were shown in Table 1, which was not forged and
was approximated as isotropy.
Table 1. The mechanical properties of 30SiMn2MoVA steel tube before forged
Reduction of
YS/MPa UTS/MPa Elongation/% HRC
area/%
958 1022 15 43 30～34
The internal features are depended on the mandrel. There are two kinds of mandrel in barrel
production, round bar mandrel and stepped mandrel. For stepped mandrel, the tube needs to be
diameter reduction before wall thickness reduction, as shown in Figure 1. For round bar mandrel, the
deformation process of blank tube is only wall thickness reduction. In this work, the cold radial
forging with stepped mandrel was investigated and four different forging ratios were set to produce the
barrel.

Figure 1. The diagrammatic sketch of radial forging process with stepped mandrel
The forging ratios, φ, is also called area reduction ratio, which has the following forms
( Ro 2  Ri 2 )  ( R12  R22 )
 (1)
Ro 2  Ri 2
where Ro and Ri are the outer and inner radius of the tube blank, R1 and R2 are the outer and inner
radius of forged tube. For radial forging with stepped mandrel, the forging ratio can be divided into
two stage forging ratios, diameter reduction stage φ1, and wall thickness reduction stage, φ2, as shown
in Figure.1. φ1 and φ2 can be calculated by formula (1), the value of radius should be replaced
according to the deformation stage mentioned above. There is a relationship between φ1, φ2 and φ,
which is
  1 +1 1- 2  (2)

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The 2020 Spring International Conference on Defence Technology IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1507 (2020) 042004 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1507/4/042004

There were four forging ratios for this work and the details were shown in Table 2. After forging,
some tubes were annealed at 600 ℃ for 3h. The aim of annealing is to eliminate the cold work
hardening.
Table 2. Dimension parameter of different forging ratios

Ro /mm Ri /mm R1 /mm R2 /mm φ1/% φ2/% φ/%

12.235 0 27%
11.640 10% 34%
15.075 5.825 2.885 27%
11.340 15% 38%
11.015 20% 41%
Tensile test was employed to obtain the axial mechanical properties of the tubes according to
ASTM E8. The external diameter of tensile specimens is 15mm and the gauge length is 70mm as
shown in Figure 2. The tests were carried on a CSS-44100 universal testing machine at room
temperature. And the draw speed of machine is 2mm/min.

Figure 2. Tensile specimen.

The bulging experiment was designed by referring to Liu’s work [15]. And the schematic diagram
of bulging test is shown in Figure 3. The cylinder specimens are processed by a section of the forged
steel gun barrel. Then the polyamine rubber is plugged into the specimen. The two ends of rubber are
pressed by a universal testing machine so that the rubber can be compressed. And rubber will transfer
the pressure to the inner wall of the cylinder specimen. With the increasing of pressure, the cylinder
specimen will bulge. The radial extensometer can obtain the displacement of outer wall of cylinder
specimen. The stress of outer wall is calculated according to correlation formulas of stress analysis of
thick wall cylinder under internal pressure. The bulging test specimens (a length of 80mm) were cut
from the forged tube which was shown in Figure 4. The external diameter of specimen was turned to
9mm so that it can be burst with less pressure.

Figure 3. The schematic diagram of bulging test

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The 2020 Spring International Conference on Defence Technology IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1507 (2020) 042004 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1507/4/042004

Figure 4. The size of cylinder specimen

The forged tubes were cut open along the axial direction. An electron microscope was employed to
check the inner surface. Meanwhile the fracture of specimens was also investigated.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Mechanical properties

The results of tensile test and bulging test are shown in Table 3 and Table 4, forged without annealing
and forged with annealing, respectively. The symbol A is axial, T for circumferential.
Table 3. Axial and circumferential properties before annealing
Forging YS/MPa UTS/MPa Elongation/%
Ratio/% A T A T A T
27 1001 1070 1120 1144 9.50 10.10
34 1125 974 1165 1080 9.00 9.50
38 1129 962 1168 1069 8.50 8.10
41 1126 945 1166 1043 9.00 7.45
From Table 3, the axial strength values were increased by forging, compared with that before
forging (Table 1). When the forging ratio exceeded 34%, there was no dramatic changes in the axial
strength values with the increasing of forging ratios. However, the circumferential strength values
decreased with the growth of forging ratio, with yield strength changing from 1070MPa (27%) to
945MPa (41%) and tensile strength changing from 1144MPa (27%) to 1043MPa (41%). Comparing
the axial and circumferential strength, when the forging ratio exceeded 34%, the circumferential yield
strength was lower about 50MPa ～ 80MPa than the axial. Meanwhile the circumferential tensile
strength was lower about 80MPa～110MPa than the axial. Forging resulted in the anisotropy of the
strength. Besides, the axial and circumferential elongation was 40% ～ 50% lower than that before
forging. With the increasing of forging ratio, the circumferential elongation was lower than the axial
gradually.
Table 4. Axial and circumferential properties after annealing
Forging YS/MPa UTS/MPa Elongation/%
Ratio/% A T A T A T
27 1010 1015 1073 1094 15.00 11.49
34 1016 902 1078 1022 15.00 9.06
38 1014 861 1081 973 15.50 8.51
41 1019 857 1089 957 15.50 7.91
When it turned to Table 4, the axial and circumferential strength values were decreased by
annealing comparing with Table 3. There was not much difference in axial strength under different
forging ratios. However, the circumferential strength was still decreased with the increasing of the
forging ratios and it was smaller than the axial. Under 41% forging ratio, the circumferential yield
strength was lower 15.89% than the axial. And the circumferential tensile strength was 12.12% lower
than the axial. The axial elongation was restored to about 15% by annealing. Whereas the
circumferential elongation was not restored. The elongation appeared remarkable anisotropy. The
circumferential elongation was 30%～50% lower than axial.

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The 2020 Spring International Conference on Defence Technology IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1507 (2020) 042004 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1507/4/042004

In order to describe strength anisotropy intuitively, the strength ratio was calculated as shown in
Figure 5 and Figure 6, which was yield strength ratio and tensile strength ratio, respectively. When the
ratio was 1, the material was isotropy.

Figure 5. The axial and circumferential yield strength ratio

From the Figure 5, under 27% forging ratio, the steel gun barrel was isotropy approximatively.
Because the yield strength ratio was 0.995, which was close to 1. With the growth of forging ratio, the
anisotropy was gradually obvious. The yield ratio under 41% forging ratio was 19.8% larger than that
under 27% forging ratio after annealing. The circumferential was inferior to the axial. The annealing
cannot change the anisotropic phenomenon. Because the yield strength ratio was almost the same
under 38% (1.178 and 1.174) and 41% forging ratios (1.192 and 1.189) before and after annealing.

Figure 6. The axial and circumferential tensile strength ratio

For the tensile strength ratio, from the Figure 6, it had the same trend as the yield strength ratio.
With the increasing of the forging ratio, the anisotropy became obvious. After annealing the
anisotropy was a little stronger than before annealing under 38% and 41% forging ratios.
For further analysis, the strain ratio (εr/εθ) was introduced to investigate the influence of forging
ratio on anisotropy of plasticity. εr is axial strain while εθ is circumferential strain. It can be calculated
by ln(l1/l0)/ln(D1/D0) where l0 and l1 are the length of tensile specimens before and after tensile test. D0
and D1 are the outer diameter of cylinder specimens before and after bulging test. Ideally, the strain
ratio of isotropic material equals one. When the value of strain ratio is greater than 1, it indicates that
axial plasticity is better than circumferential. Conversely, if it less than 1 the axial plasticity is weaker
than circumferential. The result of strain ratio after annealing under different forging ratios is shown in
Figure 7. The values of strain ratio have an increasing trend which suggests that the anisotropy is
gradually obvious with the growth of the forging ratio. The forging processing under different ratios
made a significant effect on mechanical properties of 30SiMn2MoVA high strength steel gun barrel,
especially plasticity. Before annealing, the anisotropy was not too strong. Nonetheless, after annealing

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The 2020 Spring International Conference on Defence Technology IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1507 (2020) 042004 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1507/4/042004

anisotropy was aggravated. For forging ratio 41%, the value of strain ratio after annealing was 58%
higher than before annealing. And the strain ratio of forging ratio 41% was 47% higher than that of
forging ratio 27% after annealing.

Figure 7. The axial and circumferential stain ratio

3.2. Fracture analysis

There was an interesting phenomenon drawing the attention which was the failure state of bulging test
specimens as shown in Figure 8. Before annealing, there were penetration cracks in the specimens.
With the increasing of forging ratio, the failure state was severe. When the forging ratio were 38% and
41%, the specimen was divided completely into two parts under internal pressure. After annealing,
although there were no penetrating cracks, the length of crack was longer than the failure state of
before forging. And that was increased with the growth of forging ratios.
Before φ/% 27 34 38 41
forging
Before annealing
After annealing

Crack length

Figure 8. The failure state of specimens after bulging test

Through the fracture analysis of bulging test specimen, as shown in Figure 9, it was quasi cleavage
fracture which was between the cleavage fracture and dimple fracture. Large plastic deformation

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The 2020 Spring International Conference on Defence Technology IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1507 (2020) 042004 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1507/4/042004

appeared on the fracture surface, which was characterized by tearing ridges formed due to the
propagation of small cracks in several places. The traces of crack extension were clear along the axial
direction. It showed that there were cracks in the forged tubes with stepped mandrel, which was
confirmed by Figure 10. There were many cracks in the inner surface of bulging test specimen.

Axial

Figure 9. The fracture morphology of bulging test specimen

Axial

Figure 10. The inner surface of bulging test specimen

The fracture morphology of tensile test specimen was obviously different from the
bulging test specimen as shown in Figure 11. The macroscopic appearance was fibrous and
the fracture morphology was dimple fracture which showed that the cracks were only on
the inner surface.

Figure 11. The fracture morphology of tensile test specimen

The forged steel gun barrel was cut open to check the inner surface quality. The Figure 12 showed
the inner surface of diameter reduction stage in which there was no contact between tube and mandrel.
Many wrinkles were observed along the axial direction. When the tube contacted the mandrel (wall
thickness reduction stage), there were many winkles and cracks as shown in Figure 13. The cracks
may be formed due to the existence of wrinkles. While it needed further study about the formation
mechanism of wrinkles and crack on the inner surface during forging. However, it can be determined
that the radial forging with stepped mandrel may cause wrinkles and cracks defect on the inner surface
of the forged gun barrel.

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The 2020 Spring International Conference on Defence Technology IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1507 (2020) 042004 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1507/4/042004

Axial

Figure 13. The cracks and winkles on the

Figure 12. The wrinkles on the inner
inner surface in wall thickness reduction
surface in diameter reduction stage
stage

4. Conclusions
The present work concentrated on the mechanical properties of cold radial forged steel gun barrel with
stepped mandrel. Four forging ratios were set to process gun barrel. Tensile test, bulging test and
electron microscope were employed to obtain the axial mechanical properties, circumferential
mechanical properties and microstructure, respectively. The main results are as follows:
(1) With the increasing of forging ratios, the anisotropy became obvious whether before or after
annealing. The circumferential strength was inferior to the axial.
(2) After annealing, the circumferential elongation was 30% ～ 50% lower than axial. With the
growth of forging ratios, the strain ratio became larger.
(3) The fracture morphology of bulging test specimen was quasi cleavage fracture while the
fracture of tensile test specimen was dimple fracture. The axial wrinkles and cracks were observed on
the inner surface of the forged gun barrel which showed that the radial forging with stepped mandrel
may result in the detects of forged gun barrel.

Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Defence Basic Scientific Research Program of China
(JCKY2016209A002). Microcosmic experiment was performed at the Materials Characterization
Facility of Nanjing University of Science and Technology.

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The 2020 Spring International Conference on Defence Technology IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1507 (2020) 042004 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1507/4/042004

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