Thomas Pottier

Simulation of metal forming processes with a 3D adaptive remeshing procedure

In this paper, a fully adaptive 3D numerical methodology based on a tetrahedral element was proposed in order to rove the finite element simulation of any metal forming process. This automatic methodology was implemented in a computational platform which integrates a finite element solver, 3D mesh generation and a field transfer algorithm. The proposed remeshing method was developed in order to solve problems associated with the severe distortion of elements subject to large deformations, to concentrate the elements where the error is large and to coarsen the mesh where the error is small. This leads to a significant reduction in the computation times while maintaining simulation accuracy . In addition, in order to enhance the contact conditions, this method has been coupled with a specific operator to maintain the initial contact between the workpiece nodes and the rigid tool after each remeshing step. In this paper special attention is paid to the data transfer methods and the necessary adaptive remeshing steps are given. Finally, a numerical example is detailed to demonstrate the efficiency of the approach and to compare the results for the different field transfer strategies

Thermo-Mechanical Modeling of Distortions Promoted during Cooling of Ti-6Al-4V Part Produced by Superplastic Forming

In AIRBUS, most of the complex shaped titanium fairing parts of pylon and air inlets are produced by superplastic forming (SPF). These parts are cooled down after forming to ease their extraction and increase the production rate, but AIRBUS wastes a lot of time to go back over the geometric defects generated by the cooling step. This paper investigates the simulations of the SPF, cooling and clipping operations of a part on Abaqus® Finite element software. The different steps of the global process impact the final distortions. SPF impacts the thickness and the microstructure/behavior of material, cooling impacts also the microstructure/behavior of material and promotes distortions through thermal stresses and finally, clipping relaxes the residual stresses of the cut part. An elastic-viscoplastic power law is used to model material behavior during SPF and a temperature dependent elastic perfectly plastic model for the cooling and clipping operations.