Simulation of residual deformation from

a forming, welding and heat treatment

process in alloy 718 using LS-DYNA

Eva-Lis Odenberger, IUC in Olofstrm AB & Lule University of Technology

Mikael Schill, DYNAmore Nordic AB

LS-DYNA Users Forum 2014, Gteborg 9th of October 1

 Agenda

Background and project targets

Properties of alloy 718
Forming, trimming and mapping
Welding and heat treatment procedure
Compensation
Discussion

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 Background and targets
Fabrication of load carrying engine structures consists of assembling small
castings, forgings and sheet metal parts by welding to:
decrease weight and thereby fuel consumption
Increase design flexibility
reduce product cost and increase the in-house level of processing

Typical load carrying 718 structure in the rear part of the engine

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 Background and targets
Use FE modeling to suggest and evaluate competitive cold or hot
forming procedures, welding and machining strategies, heat treatment
methods
Challenge is to accurately predict and compensate the tooling for
springback and shape distortions which occur in the different steps of
the fabrication chain
GKN Aerospace desire titanium and superalloy sheet metal parts
together with forming FE-results for subsequent manufacturing analysis

Courtecy GKN Aerospace, IUC Olofstrm and DYNAmore

Funding from VINNOVA, NFFP6 for SME

Project partners:

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 Background and targets
Target is to propose a methodology for compensation of accumulated
forming, welding and heat treatment distortions using LS-DYNA. To provide
for this it is necessary to use different solvers, coupled simulations and
element types. The methodology involves:
Die design, material characterization/model calibration, FE-modelling
of forming and cutting in the anisotropic nickel-based superalloy 718
Mapping of results from FE forming shell mesh to FE welding and heat
treatment solid mesh, springback analysis
FE-modelling of welding, cooling and springback
Compensation of the forming tools for the accumulated shape
distortion

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 Simulation of the manufacturing process chain

The simulation of the manufacturing process of these parts will require a

variety of different solvers and element types.
The forming simulation is done using the explicit solver with shell
elements for simulation time reasons. The part is trimmed at the end
of the forming stage and this is not possible using solid elements.
The welding simulations are preferably performed using solid
elements and the implicit solver. It will also require a thermo-
mechanical coupling to account for the temperature dependent
material properties.
The mesh used in the forming simulation will differ substantially from
the mesh used in the welding simulations. Mapping between
different meshes and mesh types are necessary.

Forming shell element mesh Welding solid element mesh

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 Properties of alloy 718
Alloy 718 is an advanced high strength nickel-based superalloy
Heat resistant properties and high resistance to creep deformation at high
engine running temperatures
In the form of thin metal sheets it posses anisotropic inelastic properties,
a pronounced hardening with high ductility

Thermo-mechanical material characterization up to above 950C using inductive heating and ARAMISTM

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 Properties of alloy 718
Experimental set-up for thermo-mechanical biaxial viscous Bulge and Nakazima
tests at elevated temperatures using the ARAMIS system together with
temperature resistant speckle patterns
To determine biaxial yield stress, hardening and R-values used as experimental
reference for material model calibration and generation of FLC
Biaxial test at elevated temperatures up to 650C using ARAMIS

LS-DYNA Users Forum 2014, Gteborg 9th of October 8

 Forming, trimming and mapping

A forming procedure is analyzed using the Barlat YLD2000

material model in LS-DYNA

Calibrated Barlat et al. yield criterion and R-values for alloy 718.

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 Forming, trimming and mapping
The virtual die design involve formability evaluations and springback prediction
with an improvement stage to minimize the amount of shape deviation

Forming tool producing outer case parts at IUC in Olofstrm AB and ITE Fabriks AB

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 Forming, trimming and mapping
The forming procedure is analyzed using the Barlat YLD2000 material model in LS-
DYNA v971
Careful modeling of the forming tests to insure consistent tooling geometries and
conditions
Research activity, evaluate failure models for alloy 718 to improve the fracture
prediction in draw bead regions

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 Forming, trimming and mapping

Trimming sections of an outer case part by laser cutting

A welding test will be performed at GKN Aerospace for
future validation

A1 A
2

B1
B2

3D laser cutting at TreD Mekaniska AB according to alternative A Trim analysis using LS-DYNA

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 Forming, trimming and mapping
Mapping of results from forming shell FE-mesh using adaptivity to the
fully integrated solid welding FE-mesh.
The novel shell to solid mapping functionality in LS-PREPOST v4.2 is used.
The mapping algorithm is divided into
through thickness part, parametric position of the solid el int. point is
determined and mapped against its shell counterpart.
in-plane part, parametric position of the int. point is determined by projecting
the int. point on the shell el. The mapped value is determined by a bi-linear
interpolation using the shape functions.

Forming simulation mesh (left) and welding simulation mesh (right) with mapping.

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 Welding procedure

The welding simulation is performed using *MAT_CWM material model

The CWM has a number of features that enables welding simulations.
The elements can be either material or ghost. Ghost material is used for the
weld filler material that is added to the weld seam. The ghost material is given
silent properties used until the material is activated
MAT_CWM has anneal functionality. Above a user-specified temperature, the
history variables such as effective plastic strain and/or backstress are zeroed
out - material properties are reset to virgin. Beyond the annealing
temperature, the material will behave as ideal plastic.
Linear isotropic/kinematic hardening and based on von Mises yield criterion
where all material properties are temperature dependent.

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 Welding procedure

The properties are the Youngs modulus, Poissons ratio, Yield stress,
Hardening modulus, coefficient of thermal expansion, specific heat and
heat transfer coefficient (Desphande et al.)

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 Welding procedure

The weld heat source heats up the material above the melting point, it is
activated and given properties of the base material of that temperature.
Above the annealing temperature, the history variables are zeroed out
and the material properties are reset to virgin. The material will behave as
ideal plastic without evolution of the plastic strain or backstress variables.

Element activation (red) and welding temperatures. Plastic strain is set to zero above the anneal temperature (right).

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 Welding procedure

The weld simulation is done using the implicit solver and a coupled
thermo-mechanical solution. A constant thermal and mechanical time
step is used, the weld source moves 2/3 of an element in one time step.
The heat from the weld torch is applied using the Goldak double ellipsoid
heat source. The weld source origin is defined in a node that moves by a
prescribed displacement.
The heat is applied to the integration points inside the ellipsoid

Goldak double ellipsoid heat source

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 Welding procedure

The weld simulation is done using the implicit solver and a coupled
thermo-mechanical solution.

Temperature and stress evolution during welding analysis. History from forming FE-analysis is included in the welding FE-analysis.

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 Welding procedure

The welded part is transferred to a cooling simulation using automatic

thermal and mechanical time stepping for simulation time efficiency reasons.
It is assumed that the part is kept in the welding fixture during cooling.
The last process stage is a springback step where the elastic stresses are
released and the final part geometry is received.

Part deviation after forming (left) and welding (right)

Schill M., Odenberger E-L., Simulation of residual deformation from a forming and welding process using LS-DYNA, 13th International LS-DYNA
Users Conference, June 11, 2014 in Dearborn, Michigan, USA.

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 Welding and heat treatment procedure

The heat treatment procedure could be analyzed using e.g. a Norton

creep model

Creep strain is a function of stress, accumulated creep strain, temperature

and time

Fixture for welding and heat treatment tests

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 Compensation
The aim is to produce a fabricated component within shape
tolerance in an effective and accurate way
The formed part spring back upon unloading
The welding process will introduce additional residual stresses that
further deform the part out of tolerance
A springback compensation stage is introduced that compensate for
the deformation by modifying the tool geometry. The design loop
continue until the part is within shape tolerance.

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 Compensation
The compensation is accomplished using the
*INTERFACE_COMPENSATION_NEW capability in LS-DYNA
The tools are modified with a scale factor of 1.0

Part deviation after forming (left), welding (middle) and compensation (right), [mm]

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 Summary and conclusions
It has in this work been shown that the methodology of compensating
the forming tools of these smoothly curved aero engine parts for
accumulated shape deviation will converge to a part within tolerance.
To provide for simulation of the process chain including forming,
welding and heat treatment it is necessary to use different solvers,
coupled simulations and element types.
The novel mapping functionality in LS-PREPOST will enable the user to
use whatever modeling technique necessary for the respective
manufacturing stages to transferring the data to the next process stage.
A fabrication test procedure including forming-welding- heat treatment
are performed for future validation

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 Thank you for the attention!

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