Integration of FEM and Process Map to Determine the Formability of a Continuous Cooling Bainitic Steel

Nowadays, new Continuous Cooling Bainitic Steels are being developed to decrease the manufacturing steps and energy consumption in the forging industry. However, there is still a lack of knowledge concerning their application. Control of stress state, plastic deformation, strain rate, and temperature directly affect the workability of forged products. One way to determine the best processing window during hot forging is by creating 3D process maps. This work aimed to develop and implement a virtual process map in finite element software. Forgeability tests were carried out on a wedge workpiece. The results of the three-dimensional forging simulation, such as austenitic grain size, energy dissipation, and Instability, showed a good agreement with the experimental results. The Finite Element Analysis reveals that the geometric complexity of the wedge test showed different energy dissipation and instability levels along of the plastic deformation, caused by the transient regime of temperature and strain rate.