Modeling strategies for efficient FE simulation of localised-incremental forging processes.

The numerical simulation of Localised-Incremental Forging (LIF) is a challenging task. The analysis of LIF operations is often difficult, especially when several strokes are necessary to obtain the final shape of the part. The use of FE models is mandatory because incremental operations throughout a workpiece are difficult to analyse with conventional analytical methods. It is known that, in general, implicit FE models give more robust results than explicit FE models; however, with the former methodology there are several problems that must be faced. With the main goal to extend the analysis capability of LIF operations, some explicit FE models are developed in this paper and results are compared to those obtained by implicit methodology. It can be concluded that taking into account these guidelines, the developed models could be further used in the analysis of multi-strokes LIF operations, where more complicated trajectories will be required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]