The Al-powder forging process: its finite element analysis

This paper addresses the finite element formulation and simulation of the powder forging process for cup-shaped aluminum products. This study is the preliminary analysis for the powder forging process of Al 6061 engine pistons of automobiles. The mechanical behavior of the powder is assumed to obey the isotropic compressible viscoplasticity, while the thermal behavior of powders is effectively modeled by a non-linear transient heat-transfer problem. A generalized Crank–Nicolson–Galerkin scheme is employed for the temporal and spatial approximations, and non-linear numerical equations are solved by the Newton–Raphson method. Through the numerical simulation, the distributions of density, temperature, stress, and punch load are investigated.