Numerical analysis of die wear characteristics in hot forging of titanium alloy turbine blade

This paper provides a simple and effective numerical modeling procedure to determine the thermal effects of initial workpiece temperature (T-w,) and preheated die temperature (T-d) on the die wear behavior in turbine blade forging. In particular, a local 3D finite element (FE) approach embedded with the modified Archard wear model is developed for the numerical modeling and subsequently validated by comparing the simulated average contact pressure to the analytical one, as well as the experiment from literature. Then, the wear evolution and distribution of blade forging dies are characterized numerically. Further, the thermal effects of both initial workpiece and preheated die temperatures on the die wear characteristics are assessed, and the strategies for decreasing the die wear volume are consequently suggested. The results show that the die wear depth distribution is uneven and the wear volume is more influenced by the preheated die temperature in hot forging process of the blade.