Reduction in post forging errors for aerofoil forging using finite element simulation and optimization

This paper reports on recent work in the development of a finite element (FE) based forging optimization methodology. It utilizes the commercial FE package ABAQUS and the optimization code VisualDOC. Taking into account the effect of die and press elastic deflections and thermal distortion in cooling, a direct compensation approach and optimized weighting factor method are used to achieve the optimized die shape for improved dimensional accuracy of forged aerofoil blades. The significant predicted reduction in aerofoil shape errors using a single 2D section from a forged nickel-based blade demonstrates the efficiency and potential for applying this approach to more complex, realistic and industrially relevant 3D forging problems.