Aspects of High Strain Rate Industrial Forging of Inconel 718

The major part of all material and microstructural data used for the modelling of nickel superalloy forgings is obtained from uniaxial laboratory tests with limited plastic strain and very simple thermo-mechanical history. At the same time, new challenges in near net shape industrial forging require a high level of reliability of modelling prediction of metal flow, for predicting the risk of defects and microstructural transformation. A few recently conducted benchmarking studies have shown that despite the availability of various material models (including microstructural ones) embedded in commercial FE software, in many cases, the level of prediction remains unsatisfactory. This is especially true for fast industrial forging processes (like screw press or hammer forgings). This paper suggests a methodology for processing the results from industrial forgings for obtaining robust data for calibration, validation, and improvement of material and microstructural models. This also can provide additional information on the material science behind the microstructural phenomena, which are problematic to capture and study using simple uniaxial tests.