Author(s)

J L M Fernandes, J M C Rodrigues & P A F Martins

Abstract

This paper presents a new approach for obtaining the distribution of temperature in the dies during thermo-mechanic alnumeric alanalysis of metal forming processes. The proposed approach is based on a solution resulting from the combination of the finite element method with the boundary element method. The finite element method is used to perform the thermo-viscoplastic modelling of the deforming work piece taking into account the geometrical and material non-linearities as well as the influence of the temperature distribution on the mechanical behaviour of the material. The boundary element method is applied for computing the distribution of temperature in the dies. The combination of the two numerical methods is made using the finite element solution of the heat flow exchanged across the die-workpiece interface to define the boundary conditions to be applied on the thermal analysis of the dies. A numerical example consisting of the closed-die forging of an industrial component is included to show tie applicability of the proposed approach.

Keywords