The effect of finite element type on the results of superplastic forming simulation

Procedia Manufacturing. 2019. Vol. 37. P. 85–90.

Zakhariev I.

Superplastic Forming is an industrial process to produce thin-walled products of complex shape. At the same time this process allows one to obtain the products with close to uniform thickness distribution. The process exploits the abilities of some polycrystalline materials to large elongations before failure. The best formability can be achieved only under very specific conditions of temperature and strain rate. In order to calculate the pressure regime to sustain target strain rate in critical arias it is necessary to use finite element simulation. The pressure regime calculation lasts for a day’s especially while 3 dimensional elements are use. To reduce the time of calculation it is possible to use elements from membrane theory. The main idea of this approach is to use planar elements instead of tetrahedronal for 3D tasks or 2 nodes elements instead of triangular ones for axisymmetric tasks. This reduction doesn’t take in account share stress accruing into material. The main aim of this paper is to study the effect of elements type on the accuracy of thickness distribution prognosis.

Keywords: имитационное моделирование, FEM, метод конечных элементов (МКЭ), titanium alloy, титановые сплавы, Superplastic forming, Computer simulation, Сверхпластическая формовка, Thickness distribution, распределение толщины