Elasto-thermoviscoplastic finite element analyses of cold upsetting and forging processes of S25C steel with dynamic strain aging considered

A practical methodology is presented to characterize the thermoviscoplastic flow stress at larger strain over the temperature range of cold metal forming using tensile and compression tests. Its importance is emphasized for non-isothermal finite element (FE) analysis of automatic multi-stage cold forging (AMSCF) process where maximum strain and strain rate exceed around 3.0 and 200/s, respectively. The experimental compressive flow stress is first characterized using traditional bilinear C-m model with high accuracy. It is employed for describing the closed-form function model to extrapolate the experimental flow stress over the experimentally uncovered ranges of state variables. The strain effect on the flow stress is then improved using the experimental tensile flow stress accurately calculated at large strain and room temperature. A complicated flow behavior of S25C characterized by its dynamic strain aging features is expressed by the presented methodology, which is utilized to analyze the test upsetting and AMSCF processes by the elasto-thermoviscoplastic finite element method for revealing the effects of flow stresses on the process.