Numerical Simulation Of Powder Forging Connecting Rod Based On Deform-3D

Connecting rods are of great importance in the motor engines. With the demand of environmental protection, energy saving and emission reduction, the motors walk the way down to lightening and green energy, requiring more efficient working parts. This paper chose the connecting rod of some type motorbike engine as the research object, studied the whole forming process of powder forging using DEFORM-3D numerical simulation tools. The metal flow feature was revealed, the densification model and stress distribution in the powder forged connecting rod were investigated. With the knowledge of the powder forging process, two possible routines were discussed as well.The simulation results showed that the process parameters, such as forging speed, forging temperature, initial density of the preform and die temperature, had significant effect on the forming process. With the forging speed increase, the time for full densification decreased. When the forging speed increased from 1mm/s to 2mm/s, the density increased more smoothly, while the forging speed increased to 3mm/s, the density increased with more fluctuation; meanwhile, with the increased forging speed, the maximum effective stress decreased with different tendencies in different locations. When the forging temperature increased, the densification process quickened, the difference between the tendencies of different locations became smaller, and the maximum stress decreased. The larger the initial density of the preform, the shorter the forming time and the closer the densification trends. The die temperature had little influence on the densification, but effected significantly on the final temperature of the forged piece. When the die temperature increased from 200℃ to 400℃, the final temperature of the forged piece increased from 400℃ to 500℃. The maximum stress decreased uniformly.When utilizing the encounter compaction method, the density increased uniformly and the maximum stress decreased dramatically. When using the nonuniform initial density method, the density as well as the maximum effective stress remained almost the same.