Finite Element Modelling of Ultrasonic Assisted Hot Pressing of Metal Powder

Abstract

Abstract Ultrasonication has widely been used in many industries to develop advanced materials, improve materials behaviors, and enhance mechanical strength to name a few. The present investigation aims to accelerate the densification mechanisms during the hot-pressing process of Ti-6Al-4V powder through high power ultrasonication. A computational study has been developed and implemented to simulate the consolidation behavior, which have then been compared with those experimental data to ensure the simulation accuracy. The constitutive equations including thermoplastic and power law creep models, were extracted at each of the aforesaid stages and applied by FORTRAN software, respectively, in the form of UMAT and CREEP subroutines in the simulation. Finally, the simulation results in relative density-time diagrams and density distribution have been compared with the results of experimental tests. The comparison of the simulation and experimental results shows a maximum error of 6.8 and 2.8% in predicting the densification behavior of hot pressing without and with ultrasonication, respectively. The results show the good accuracy of the simulation in predicting final relative density and density distribution with ultrasonic vibrations.