On the damage criteria and their critical values for flowforming of ELI grade Ti64

Abstract

Cold flowforming is a chipless forming process that deforms tubular parts by reducing their outer diameter and thickness while increasing their length. It consists of a rotating mandrel and one or more rollers that are translated along the tube axis, thus plastically deforming it. Flowforming of Ti-6Al-4V (also known as Ti64) is of great interest for improving the mechanical properties of the material, such as yield stress and fatigue strength. However this alloy is known to have poor ductility at room temperature. Therefore, flowforming of Ti64 without failure or crack is a great challenge. In this present paper, the authors have attempted to predict the different failure modes occurring during flowforming. An experimental machine has been built at the Center for Material Forming (CEMEF) in order to monitor the force on the single roller, the torque on the mandrel and the actual rotation speed of the roller as well. Numerous flowforming tests have been performed using different processing parameters, such as working depth, roller feed and initial geometry, in order to investigate the critical values which lead to the failure of the flowformed tube. In addition, numerical simulations of the process have been performed using the FORGE FEM solver. The results of the simulations have been used to evaluate the relevance of usual failure criteria (Crockford-Latham, Rice-Tracey and Oyane).