Journal of

Materials
Processing
Technology
ELSEVIER J. Mater. Process. Technol. 43 (1994) 279-291

3-D finite-element simulation of the cold forging

of helical gears
V o l k e r S z e n t m i h a l i " , K u r t L a n g e a, Yves T r o n e l b, J e a n - L o u p C h e n o t *'b,
Richard Ducloux c
aUniversitiit Stuttgart Institut fiJr Umformtechnik, 7000 Stuttgart, Germany
bEcole nationale sup~rieure des Mines de Paris, Centre de Mise en Forme des Matbriaux, Sophia Antipolis,
06560 Valbonne, France
CTransvalor, Les Espaces Delta, BP 037 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France

(Received March 18, 1993; accepted November 24, 1993)

Industrial Summary
This article illustrates the use of the finite-element method to simulate the forging of
3-dimensional complex industrial parts. The FORGE3 code, which can simulate the cold and
hot forging of industrial parts is presented together with a thermo-mechanical formulation and
its numerical resolution. It is known that in an updated lagrangian approach using a convective
mesh, degeneration of the mesh occurs very rapidly. An automatic mesh generation procedure
for 3-D complex geometries has been developed which enables the creation of the initial mesh of
the billet as well as remeshing. This technique allows the simulation of the whole process of
forging complex industrial parts using quadratic tetrahedral elements. In order to show the
effectiveness of the method, the lateral cold extrusion of a helical gear has been computed. The
results show that the computation can be carried out using the described remeshing procedure
and that it can be applied successfully to even more complex geometries.

1. Introduction

Helical gears used by the automobile industry were the subject of a research project
of the Forschungsgesellschaft Umformtechnik (FGU), Stuttgart, with the aim of
substituting the metal-cutting production which has been used until now by a new
method of cold forming [1]. It was possible to prove the appropriateness of the
selected lateral extrusion process and the developed tools. However, the high internal
pressure of the process which is necessary for the filling up of the tooth space,

* Corresponding author

0924-0136/94/$07.00 © 1994 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

SSDI 0 9 2 4 - 0 1 3 6 ( 9 3 ) E 0 1 3 5 - 4
280 Volker Szentmihali et al./Journal of Materials Processing Technology 43 (1994,) 279- 291

influences the dimensional tolerance of the toothed gear. Compensation for the
occurrence of elastic deformation of the tool by measuring the dimensional deviations
of the tooth system is only partly possible, since this deviation also depends on the
manufacture of the tool by E D M and polishing: only a theoretical treatment of the
lateral extrusion process could provide an absolutely faultless tool profile. A numer-
ical study of this extrusion process is also necessary because measurement of the forces
or stresses acting on the tooth surface is difficult or impossible.
Today several efficient and user-friendly codes are available for the numerical
treatment of forming operations, even those of high complexity [2-4]. However,
industrial applications have been limited up to now to simulation of axisymmetrical
or 2-D processes of bulk forming [5-8]. Because the lateral extrusion process under
consideration could not be treated in 2-D due to its complex flow of material and
because in a 2-D simulation it is not possible to draw conclusions about the influence
of the helix angle of the gear, only a 3-D analysis is useful in this case. Furthermore, an
efficient remeshing-module is needed because of the large plastic deformation in-
volved: without this the simulation would be possible only for small strains or would
require unfeasible manual remeshing.
For this purpose a modular 3-D remeshing code is available which has already been
used successfully for the simulating metal forming of spur gears [9]. However, this
method is not fully automatic and does not appear very user-friendly for complex
industrial geometries [10].
For 2-D simulations, mostly triangular or four-node linear elements are used and
for 3-D cases cubic eight-node linear elements are applied in remeshing programs. In
the actual case, for the solution of a difficult 3-D problem, ten-node tetrahedral
elements are used. In this paper the programs for automatic remeshing and mesh
generation, the simulation code FORGE3, as well as the example of the cold forming
of a thick-walled hollow cylinder into a helical gear, are presented.

2. Basic equations

The aim of this section is to introduce the equations governing the thermo-
dependant model of forging. It should be noted that the computer code F O R G E 3 is
specified for hot forging but cold forging could be foreseen as a limit case.

2.1. The mechanical equations

Since inertia and gravity forces are neglected, the equilibrium equation is written:
div (a) = 0, (1)
where a is the usual Cauchy stress tensor.
As the material is assumed to be isotropic and incompressible, the following
condition on the velocity field can be written:
div (v) = tr(~) = O, (2)
where ~ is the strain-rate tensor.
282 Volker Szentmihali et al./Journal of Materials Processing Technology 43 (1994) 279-291

A power law is used for the friction potential:

aK
• f(Av) = ~ [Imvllp+ 1 (11)
p-el

so that the shear stress may be written:

r = - eK Ilavll p- lay, (12)

where ct and p are respectively the friction coefficient and the friction-rate sensitivity
parameter. It is assumed that there is no other mechanical interaction on the
boundary, which implies there is no force on the free surfaces.
The contact is supposed to be unilateral, i.e. a node of the part can come into
contact with or leave the die. There is also a condition of non-penetrability which does
not allow a point to penetrate into the die:

Av.n <~O, (13)

where n is the external unit vector normal to the part.

2.3. Variational formulation

The part is a domain I2 and t3t2f is the boundary of I2 which is in contact with the
die. By application of the variational principle, the solution of the present problem
minimizes the functional J, which is later defined by:

J(v)= I(P(v)d~ + f4~f(Av)d~. (14)

This search of the minimum is performed under the incompressibility constraint

div (v) = 0 and the condition of non-penetrability on the interface 0f2f between the
part and the tools.
According to the expression of • and ~f, J(v) can be written:

J ( v ) = I ~-~--~x//3~)
K / \m+l d ~ + f p---~qlAvllP+ld6
aK a, (15)
aOf

and div (v)= 0. The constraint of incompressibility is enforced approximately by

a penalty method and finally a modified functional Jp(v) is obtained:

Jp(v) = J(v) + ½p~K(div(v)) 2 dre, (16)

Q

where p is a large positive number.

 Volker Szentmihali et al./Journal of Materials Processing Technology 43 (1994) 279-291 281

Elastic effects are supposed to have a small contribution and are thus neglected. As
a consequence the material is assumed to obey a viscoplastic law derived from
a viscoplastic potential ~. Then, the relationship between the deviatoric part of the
stress tensor and the strain-rate tensor is given by:

~(v)
s- (3)

The classical N o r t o n - H o f f power law has been chosen, for which the associated
potential is:
K / \m+ 1
~(v)= m+l / x/~) , (4)
where ~ is the equivalent strain rate:

e= 2 i . (5)

Thus, for the deviatoric stress tensor:

s = 2K i, (6)

where K is the strength (or the consistency) of the material and m is the strain-rate
sensitivity, the value of m being equal to unity for a Newtonian fluid and to 0 for
von-Mises rigid-plastic behaviour. In this model both temperature softening and
strain hardening are taken into account through the consistency:
K = Ko(~o + ~)n exp(/3/T), (7)

where the equivalent strain is defined by:

= f~ dr. (8)

2.2. The boundary conditions

In forging, friction between the tools and the part is very important, so that it is
necessary to introduce a friction law into the model, A friction law consistent with the
material behavior is chosen and a friction potential ~f(Av) depending on the tangen-
tial velocity difference between the part and the tool is constructed.
Av = v - v di~. (9)

The function shear stress is derived from ~f by :

~(~f)
r - (10)
c~Av
 Volker Szentmihali et al./Journal of Materials Processing Technology 43 (1994) 279-291 283

2.4. The thermal effect

2.4.1. The heat transfer equation

If an isotropic Fourier law is used for the heat flux, the heat equation may be
written:
dT
pc - ~ = div(k grad T) + I~, (17)

where l/d is the heat production due to mechanical viscoplastic deformation.

The general expression of l~ is
I ~ = ra:~, with 0.9 ~< r ~< 1.0. (18)
In the particular case of the Norton-Hoff law, this leads to:

= rK (19)

2.4.2. The boundary conditions

On the free surface the conditions may be written as follows:
- kgrad T . n = h ( T - Text) , (20)
where Text is the external temperature.
The coefficient h is complex, taking into account convection and radiation phe-
nomena:
h = he + e, ar(T + Text)(T 2 + T2xt), (21)
where he is the convection coefficient, er is the metal emissivity and tr, is the Stephan
constant.
On the surface in contact with the die, in addition to a convective conduction term,
there is surface energy dissipation due to friction.
The resulting heat flux can be approximated by:
b
- k g r a d T ' n = hcd(T - Td) b + bd ctK 11AvIIp + x (22)

where hcd is the heat transfer coefficient, Td is the die temperature, and b and bd are the
effusivity of the part and of the die respectively.
There is also a condition of imposed temperature T = Ti.

3. D i s c r e t i z a t i o n a n d r e s o l u t i o n

As an updated lagrangian method is used, the process is divided into small time
steps. At each time step the mechanical and thermal problems are solved separately,
so that there is not a full thermo-mechanical coupling. However, the temperature field
284 Volker Szentmihali et aL/Journal of Materials Processing Technology 43 f1994) 279-291

is needed in order to solve the mechanical problem through a thermal dependence of

the consistency. On the other hand, the heat equation contains mechanical variables
through the volumetric heat production and the surfacic heat dissipation due to
friction. Therefore the thermal coupling is performed from one step to the next one.

3.1. The mechanical problem

The numerical method used to solve the mechanical problem is the finite-element
method. At each time step the domain f2 is discretized into elements f2e and the
velocity is then approximated by:
q
v = ~ NiV', (23)
i=1

where q is the total number of nodes, and Vi and Ni are respectively the nodal velocity
vector and the shape function related to node i. Then a discretized functional which
depends on the q nodal velocity vectors can be written, its minimization leading to
a set of 3q non-linear equations which is solved by a classical Newton-Raphson
method.
The nodal velocity is then used to calculate the other variables such as the strain
rate and the stress tensor. The integration scheme is Eulerian and explicit and is used
to update the domain and history variables such as the equivalent strain, the micro-
structural parameters and the tool wear.
For any variable v:
v(t + A t) = v(t) + ~At. (24)
For instance, the domain is updated by "
g2(t + At) = g2(t) + ~ t ) A t , (25)
and equivalent strain by:
~(t + At) = ~(t) + ~(t)At. (26)

3.2. The thermal problem

The thermal problem is solved with the same discretization and the same shape
functions as the mechanical problem. Thus the temperature field can be approximated
by:
q
T = ~ NiT i, (27)
i=l

where T i is the nodal temperature of node i. The Galerkin method is employed and
finally a set of q non-linear equations has to be solved. If these are written in matrix
form, then:

cdr
dt + K T + Q = 0. (28)
 Volker Szentmihali et al./Journal of Materials Processing Technology 43 (1994) 279-291 285

For time integration a three-level integration scheme which is consistent to the second
order is chosen [13]. Under these conditions, temperature and its derivative are written:

lc = aTt-a,, + (3 - 2a - g)Tt + (a - ½ + g)Tt+a,~,

- T,-A,, T,+a, 2 - T,
dT=(l_g) Tt Atx + g Atz (29)

Note that in this scheme all the non-linear terms are linearized so that C is written:

c * = (½ - g ) c , _ ~ , , + (½ + g ) c , , (30)
with similar forms for K and Q.
Finally a linear matrix system with the nodal temperatures at time t + At2 as the
unknowns has to be solved.

3.3. The global thermo-mechanical resolution

At each time step, the following stages are performed:

(i) The domain at time t, temperature at time t and t - At1 are known, so that the
consistency K at time t is known. The mechanical resolution is achieved and gives
the velocity field.
(ii) With this velocity field are then computed the stress tensor, the strain -rate tensor
and the equivalent strain-rate and the configuration is updated so that the
domain, the equivalent strain, the history variables, the friction heat flux and the
plastic work rate are known at time t + At2.
(iii) Finally, the thermal calculation is performed so that temperature at time t + At2
is known and step (i) can be returned to by making t ~ t + At2.

4. The automatic remeshing procedure

Presented here the main stages of the automatic procedure, which later is concerned
with the creation or the remeshing of a spatial domain with tetrahedron bricks. For
the finite-element calculation and in particular to take into account the condition of
incompressibility, ten-nodes quadratic elements, are used.

4.1. The initial data

A fully automatic procedure of mesh creation needs a minimum of data, in the

present case, this being a description of the boundary. Two cases may occur, but have
the same initial data.
(1) The data is given initially by a CAD code through a discretization into linear
triangles of the boundary.
286 Volker Szentmihali et aL/Journal ~/'Materials Processing Technology 43 (1994) 279 291

(2) A remeshing is required: the same data is obtained by exploiting the current mesh.
Two sub-stages are made:
(i) the boundary of the part which is made up of quadratic triangles is over-
discretized into linear triangles by cutting each face into smaller triangles.
(ii) As new nodes have been created, a contact analysis is made in order to keep the
over-discretized surface as close as possible to the previous contact configuration:
projection of the inside nodes, projection of new nodes which are found to be in
contact (within a given margin) are necessary to satisfy this geometrical constraint.

4.1.1. The remeshing procedure

As mentioned above, the boundary is over-discretized, so that the number of surface
nodes is very important. The previous description of the boundary is then modified in
order to obtain the same structural description with a more tractable number of
nodes, whilst a good precision of the geometry is maintained.
Then a quadratic surface is created by curving the linear triangles of the previous
surface. The way this curvature is done matches as precisely as possible the real
surface of the part which is represented by the over-discretized surface.
A volumetric linear tetrahedral mesh is created first which fits the surface. It is
refined by adding internal nodes, the boundary faces are curved when necessary and
ten node elements are created in the whole discretized domain. It should be noted that
all internal elements have straight faces: only the surface can present curvature.

4.1.2. The whole simulation

Up to now the whole simulation is not fully automatic due to different stages of
mesh creation. The procedure described above needs the intervention of the user,
mainly to control interactively the precision, the quality of the mesh and the total
number of nodes in order to control the computation time (an identical procedure in
2-D is fully automatic because the procedure is not so limited by the number of nodes).
The simulation of a complete pass of forging can be divided into 4 stages.
(1) Using a CAD description of the initial boundary, an initial mesh is created.
(2) The forging simulation is performed step by step until remeshing is necessary:
either by degeneracy of an element or by the choice of the user.
(3) A new mesh is created with the surface description of the deformed mesh when
the computation is interrupted.
(4) State variables are transported from the old mesh to the new mesh (temperature,
strain .... ). Other variables concerning the tool can be transported: for instance
the wear, which is a history variable.
Steps (2)-(4) are repeated until the end of the process is reached.

5. Remeshing of a helical gear

The helical gear is composed of 30 teeth: an approximation was developed to take

into account one tooth only. The cut edges present no plane of symmetry, but the
periodical structure of the entire workpiece permits a meaningful sub-division.
 Volker Szentrnihali et al./Journal of Materials Processing Technology 43 (1994) 279-291 287

Assuming that there is no flow of material perpendicular to the cut edges, these
degrees of freedom were suppressed by two additional fictitious tools with no friction
which are adjacent to the two cut edges Fig. 1.
The forming force is transmitted to the workpiece by two punches which move towards
each other, so that the material flow perpendicular to the moving direction of the punches

" a

Fig. 1. (a) Workpiece; (b) and (c) additional limitation surfaces (fictitious tools).

&

Fig. 2. (a) Workpiece; (b) toothed die with closing dies at the upper and lower side; (c) upper punch;
(d) mandrel; (e) lower punch.
 288 Volker Szentmihali et al./Journal of Materials Processing Technology 43 (1994) 279 291

occurs, mainly in the radial direction into the tooth space of the die. The movement of
the mandrel in the central bore is coupled with the movement of the upper punch.
The geometrical modelling for the simulation was done by the pre- and post-
processor PATRAN, whereby the three-node triangular elements of the surface of the

Fig. 3. (a) initial mesh;(b) 6th mesh at 60% reduction; (c) 12th mesh at 75% reduction;(d) final mesh at the
end of the simulation.
 Volker Szentmihali et al./Journal of Materials Processing Technology 43 (1994) 279-291 289

Fig. 3. (continued).

Fig. 4. Distribution of equivalent strain in the workpiece at the end of the forming process.

raw piece only served as a geometric basis for the mesh generator of FORGE3,
whereas the tool meshes Fig. 2 could be taken directly for the tools, which latter were
assumed to be rigid. The workpiece meshes had between 180 and 205 boundary linear
triangles out of which 622 quadratic tetrahedral elements with 1260 nodes were
formed at the beginning of the process and finally 781 quadratic tetrahedral elements
with 1523 nodes were generated. The forming process was achieved after a punch
displacement of 5.15 mm, for which 192 load increments were needed. For this
purpose 20 remeshing processes were required, the first of which was conducted after
40 steps because separate tool nodes penetrated too deeply into the tools. All further
290 Volker Szentmihali et a/./Journa[ o[' Materials Processing Techno/og)' 43 f 1994 J 279 291

remeshing processes had to be conducted because of mesh degeneracy. The critical

position was, always the radius at the fillet from the vertical into the horizontal part of
the closing die. This radius was chosen as 0.2 mm, which is rather large as compared
to the sharp edge in the experiment, but still rather small for a sudden change in the
moving direction of the element nodes.
Fig. 3(a) shows the first workpiece mesh for the given raw piece geometry. Figs. 3(b)
and 3(c) show the 6th and the 12th mesh after about 60% resp. 75% of forming way
and in Fig. 3(d) the state at the end of the simulation is shown.
Apart from the flow of the material, the distribution of the equivalent strain in the
workpiece and the distribution of contact normal stresses on the workpiece surface
are included (Fig. 4). These are used for the determination of elastic tool deformation
by means of the boundary-element method, which deformations are finally to be
compensated for.

6. Conclusions

The F O R G E 3 code together with its new procedure for generation of FE-meshes is
presented. The step-wise generation of the volume mesh of quadratic tetrahedral
elements resulting from a workpiece surface meshed with linear triangular elements is
described. As an example, the simulation of the cold lateral extrusion of a helical gear
out of a thick-walled hollow cylinder is described and the results are presented. It has
been shown that by using quadratic tetrahedral elements, it becomes possible to
describe accurately complicated industrial components with surfaces with strong
curvatures, despite the relatively small number of elements. The program F O R G E 3 is
therefore an important tool for the analysis of forming processes for the rapidly ad-
vancing tehnologies of bulk forming.

7. Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank the Ministerium ffir Wirtschaft, Mittelstand and Tech-
nologie, Baden-Wiirttemberg, for financial support of this project.

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