A method for the simulation of temperature stabilisation during multi-cycle cold forging operations

Previous analyses of material flow and temperature history during cold forging mostly referred to a particular manufacturing cycle of the forging; temperature changes in the tools with the number of manufacturing cycle were not examined. Repeating full-scale, coupled thermo-mechanical plastic-flow simulation to effect the analysis of temperature changes during multi-cycle operations is impracticable. An alternative strategy was, therefore, used for developing a simplified procedure to effect the analysis. The approach was to combine coupled thermo-mechanical FE plastic simulation and heat transfer analysis to define heat-flux-density functions across die/workpiece interfaces. The functions were then used for initiating heat transfer analysis on the die with the repeated heat-loading for the given cycles. Since only heat transfer analysis was required for the die for the multi-cycle analysis, high-efficiency of the computation was achieved.