A metal‐forming approach to automatic generation of graded initial quadrilateral finite element meshes

Abstract

This paper presents an algorithm for automatic generation of graded initial quadrilateral meshes targeted for the finite element analysis of metal‐forming processes. Meshing the domain geometry deals with a universe of shapes, and the procedure therefore takes into account the initial geometry of the billet. A grid‐based approach is utilised for generating an initial coarse mesh with well‐shaped (internal) elements, and in cases where non‐rectangular shapes are to be discretized, linking with the boundary is performed on the basis of constrained Delaunay triangulation. By analysing the contact situation between dies and mesh, an attempt is made to identify regions where plastic deformation is likely to be concentrated during the early stages of processing, and accordingly refinement of the mesh is performed locally by elemental subdivision. Simulation examples for closed‐die forging, forward rod and backward can extrusion substantiate the feasibility of this approach in terms of lowering the overall calculation error and limiting the interference between mesh and die.

Citation

Petersen, S.B., Gouveia, B.P.P.A., Rodrigues, J.M.C. and Martins, P.A.F. (1998), "A metal‐forming approach to automatic generation of graded initial quadrilateral finite element meshes", Engineering Computations, Vol. 15 No. 5, pp. 577-587. https://doi.org/10.1108/02644409810225742