Speeding-up Numerical Simulation of 3D Forging through Recurrent Boundary Contact Conditions

The present work reviews the development of a technique to reduce the computation time of three-dimensional numerical simulations of forming processes with repetitive symmetry conditions. The method has been implemented into the 3D finite element simulation software Forge3 (R) to handle non-standard symmetry conditions named Recurrent Boundary Conditions. The theoretical framework of the method based on miscellaneous master-slave contact penalization techniques is recalled, and its extension to simulations with deformable bodies is presented. The size of the thermo-mechanical problem is reduced by enforcing boundary conditions on auto-detected periodic surfaces for both velocity and temperature fields. The resolution method coupled with high-performance parallel computing and advanced remeshing techniques makes it possible to quickly and accurately solve complex thermo-mechanical forming problems such as gear forming and forging applications processes with helical cyclic geometries.