Hot Forging Process Design Optimization Based on Approximate Model and FEM Simulation

摘要

Technology and die design are very important in the development of forging products due to its great influence on the quality, cost and manufacturing efficiency of the final products as well as the life of the forging die. In the environment of the severe competition, how to improve the quality of forging technology and die design, to reduce the product cost and ultimately to enhance competitiveness of the forging factory are the problems that forging technology and die designer have to solve. In order to improve the quality of forging technology and die design, a design optimization method based on approximate model (response surface model) and FEM technique for hot forging process is proposed in this paper. During design optimization process, finite element analysis is incorporated to calculate the objective function and check the design alternatives. Design of experiment (DOE) method is used to collect sample points and calculate the polynomial coefficients of response surface model, and approximate model is used to calculate the optimum search direction. Finally, a case study is conducted for a gear workpiece hot forging process. The objective function is the degree of uniformity of equivalent-strain, which can be defined as mean square deviation of the equivalent-strain in each element and the average equivalent-strain of all elements, and the design parameters are the initial H0/D0 ratio of billet and the key dimensions of the die. Then the design optimization mathematical model is established. The result shows that the objective function value is dropped from 0.7914 and converges at 0.4843 within 17 iterations, the optimal design parameters are obtained.