Bulk metal formed parts for power plants

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Hirt
• Subject Area: Primary Shaping and Reshaping Technology, Additive Manufacturing
• Term: from 2009 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 139041586

The components of modern facilities for energy production are increasing the requirements for the used materials and manufacturing processes. The increased requirements are generated by the need of higher efficiency and higher overall performance of the investments. In particular, metal formed components are used for high and highly stressed components. The technical layout of the necessary forming processes requires appropriate knowledge of materials and their consideration already for the design of the forming processes. The process simulation is a modern tool for the design, analysis and optimization of such processes. In addition to the prediction of the necessary power and energy for the forming process, the simulation delivers local information about the material properties (such as dynamically recrystallized fraction, grain size …) achieved by forming operations. These material properties significantly determine the strength and durability of the components. Prerequisite for such a detailed calculation result is a suitable material modelling. The focus of this proposal is the development of a new method for the layout of open die forging processes for the manufacture of hollow shafts (e.g. rotor shafts for wind energy plants). The central part of this method is a parametric numerical model embedded in an optimization model. Considering the grain size evolution during hot forging and the desired geometry of the shaft this method delivers the necessary process layout for the manufacture of the hollow shaft with the desired properties. The development of this new method is at each stage a close cooperation of IBF (Germany) and LdTM (Brazil).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Brazil
• Participating Person: Professor Dr.-Ing. Lirio Schaeffer