Investigation in 3D-CTM Software for Simulating Precision Forging Process of Aero-Engine Blade

3D-CTM(Coupled Thermo-Mechanical Forming Simulation) software for precision forging process of aero-engine blade was developed. The key technologies of 3D coupled rigid-viscoplastic thermo-mechanical FEM simulation of blade forging process were studied systematically. By using the remeshing method of contracting from the boundary to the inner, new mesh system from old distorted mesh system can be obtained. A method of modifying the position of nodes touching on the die according to its original normal was proposed to avoid"dead lock" problem due to uncontinuity of normal of scatted die meshes. The pseudo-static iterative algorithm was used to simplify the coupled thermo-mechanical computation. In particular, formulations to determine relaxation factor β was established for rigid viscoplastic FEM adopting penalty function method, and an improved cubic factor rapid algorithm derived from these formulations was proposed by combining with the advantage of advance and retreat search method. Finally, by applying the 3D-CTM to the precision forging process of the blade with tenon, the results show that the system is reliable.