Numerical simulation of grain size during isothermal forging of TC6 alloy

A constitutive equation to describe a correlation of the deformation behavior with the microstructure evolution of the TC6 alloy during high temperature deformation was proposed, through introducing a function related to the microstructure variables. Combining FEM and the present equation and model for microstructure evolution, the grain size of prior α phase was simulated during the isothermal forging of TC6 alloy airfoil blade using commercial FE software. The present results illustrate the α phase grain size during the forging of TC6 alloy airfoil blade in detail. The simulated results show that the height reduction, deformation temperature and strain rate have more significant effects on the grain size of prior α phase than the friction factor between the billet and the die.