Improvement of forging process of a 3D complex part with respect to damage occurrence

This work is devoted to the study of a numerical (FE-based) methodology developed in order to improve the cold 3D forging process with respect to the ductile damage occurrence. This methodology is based on advanced constitutive equations accounting for the "strong" coupling between the elastoplastic behavior, the mixed isotropic and kinematic hardening and the isotropic ductile damage. Both the mechanical and numerical aspects related to the associated initial and boundary values problem (IBVP) are briefly outlined. Application is made to be the cold forging of a 3D part (spider) by studying the influence of the material ductility as well as the friction nature between the part and the die on the damage occurrence. The proposed methodology is shown to be very useful and helpful when dealing with a "virtual" improvement of any forging processes with respect to damage occurrence. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.