Numerical simulation of metal forming processes

This poster presents an array of in-house developed numerical simulation packages for use in the design and analysis of metal forming processes. Through continuous development since more than a decade, IBF developed a whole CAE system including grain size simulation and optimisation package. The pre and post-processor PEP consists user friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI). The pre processing capabilities include 2D and 3D Finite Element modelling of any critical geometries and it has matured interfaces to commercial FE codes such as LS-DYNA, ABAQUS, I-DEAS, PATRAN and LARSTRAN. The central part of CAE system is Finite Element Analysis package "LARSTRAN". LARSTRAN is based on implicit Lagrange Finite Element description. It consists wide range of element types. For example flange elements, membrane elements, plane strain, Axis-symmetric elements, Volume elements, Beam elements, Plate and Shell elements and Heat transfer elements. All these elements can perform material description of elastic, elastic-plastic and super plastic strain. Coupled thermo-mechanical simulation is also possible. For the numerical simulations, modelling accurate material properties is a challenging task. STRUCSIM is being developed to meet these requirements. STRUCSIM is used to predict micro-structure dependent flow curves through grain size distribution simulations. At the end, an optimisation tool (CAOT) is presented. The optimisation principle of the CAOT system is based on the classical engineering approach used to optimise forming processes. CAOT is coupled with the Finite Element models to simulate and optimise the entire metal forming process chain and/or the product itself.