Modelling and simulation of contact force in cold rotary forging

Cold rotary forging is an advanced and complex metal forming technology with continuous local plastic deformation. Investigating the contact force between the dies and the workpiece has a great significance to improve the life of the dies in cold rotary forging. The purpose of this work is to reveal the contact force responses in cold rotary forging through the modelling and simulation. For this purpose, a 3D elastic-plastic dynamic explicit FE model of cold rotary forging is developed using the FE code ABAQUS/Explicit. Through the modelling and simulation, the distribution and evolution of the contact force in cold rotary forging is investigated in detail. The experiment has been conducted and the validity of the 3D FE model of cold rotary forging has been verified. The results show that: 1) The contact force distribution is complex and exhibits an obvious non-uniform characteristic in the radial and circumferential directions; 2) The maximum contact force between the upper die and the workpiece is much larger than that between the lower die and the workpiece; 3) The contact force evolution history is periodic and every period experiences three different stages; 4) The total normal contact force is much larger than the total shear contact force at any given time.