Numerical Analysis of Superplastic Blow Forming of Ti-6Al-4V alloys

This paper provides an analytical solution to the real industrial problem of the superplastic forming of a titanium jet engine burner component and was undertaken in collaboration with Rolls-Royce���s Process Modelling Group (J Spence, now working in the University). The research resulted in a practical prototyping methodology combined with computational modelling of superplastic forming that has wider application.The superplastic blow forming of a Ti���6Al���4V sheet into a cylindrical cup has been numerically analysed based on the actual forming process using ABAQUS. A detailed element type study has been performed to eliminate the element dependency in the finite element analysis. The accuracy and reliability of the proposed finite element model has been validated in comparison with experimental data. The validation proves that, there is a good agreement between the simulation and the experiment. In addition, the best prediction of the thickness distribution can be obtained using the continuum element. Furthermore, the effects of major factors such as friction coefficient and the strain rate sensitivity index upon the optimum forming pressure-time and thickness distribution of the component have been studied systematically using the proposed finite element model