Thermo-mechanical modeling of distortions promoted during cooling of Ti-6Al-4V part produced by superplastic forming

摘要

In AIRBUS, most of the complex shaped titanium fairing parts of pylon and air inlets are produced by superplastic forming (SPF). These parts are cooled down after forming to ease their extraction and increase the production rate, but AIRBUS wastes a lot of time to go back over the geometric defects generated by the cooling step. This paper investigates the simulations of the SPF, cooling and clipping operations of a part on Abaqus~R Finite element software. The different steps of the global process impact the final distortions. SPF impacts the thickness and the microstructure/behavior of material, cooling impacts also the microstructure/behavior of material and promotes distortions through thermal stresses and finally, clipping relaxes the residual stresses of the cut part. An elastic-viscoplastic power law is used to model material behavior during SPF and a temperature dependent elastic perfectly plastic model for the cooling and clipping operations.