Application of Direct Resistance Heating in Hot Forging and Analysis of Processing Parameters based on Thermo-electro-mechanical Coupling FEM

Abstract A series of experiments were designed in order to directly heat the billet of 42CrMo4 to the forming temperature in the dies prior to forming and continue to heat the billet during the forming process. Processing parameters during heating and forming were investigated by experimental method and thermo-electro-mechanical coupling FEM. The experimental results show that prior to forming the billet could be rapidly heated to forming temperature under relatively low initial contact pressure, and the heating temperature was proportional to the square of the current intensity. When the heating current remained constant, the heating temperature could not increase with heating time. During the forming process, the billet cooling rate slowed down and the forming time was extended due to the continuous resistance heating during forming. Finally, an incrementally coupled thermo-electro-mechanical model has been developed to analyze the hot-forging process by direct resistance heating. To obtain the transient temperature field prior to forming, a simple model of contact resistance was used in the thermal-electrical simulation, in which the electrical conductance of the contact resistance was proportional to the heating temperature. Contrasted the experimental results and the simulation results, it was found that they coincided well.