Title: Development of finite element simulator for forging process design using Euler's fixed meshing method

Authors: Chan Chin Wang

Addresses: Tunku Abdul Rahman University, Setapak, Kuala Lumpur 53300, Malaysia

Abstract: A simulator based on rigid-plastic finite element method is developed for simulating the plastic flow of material in forging processes. The simulator is specially tailored for the process sign of forging mechanical parts, which is capable to deal with various working conditions and forged materials. In the forging process like backward extrusion, a workpiece normally undergoes large deformation around the tool corners that causes severe distortion of elements in finite element analysis. Since the distorted elements may induce instability of numerical calculation and divergence of non-linear solution in finite element analysis, a computational technique of using the Euler|s fixed meshing method is proposed to deal with large deformation problem. This is to replace the conventional way of applying complicated remeshing schemes when using the Lagrange|s elements. With this method, the initial elements are generated to fix into a specified analytical region with particles implanted as markers to form the body of a workpiece. The particles are allowed to flow between the elements after each deformation step to show the deforming pattern of material. The proposed method is found to be effective in simulating complicated material flow inside the die cavity, which has many sharp edges, and also the extrusion of relatively slender parts like fins. In this paper, the formulation of rigid-plastic Finite Element Method (FEM) based on plasticity theory for slightly compressible material is introduced, and the advantages of the proposed method as compared to conventional one are discussed.

Keywords: forging simulator; rigid-plastic FEM; finite element method; Euler fixed meshing; precision forging; simulation; plastic flow; deformation; plasticity theory.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPTECH.2009.026376

International Journal of Precision Technology, 2009 Vol.1 No.2, pp.173 - 182

Published online: 08 Jun 2009 *

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