Experimental and Numerical Characterisation of the Cyclic Thermo-Mechanical Behaviour of a High Temperature Forming Tool Alloy

This paper describes high temperature cyclic and creep relaxation testing and modelling of a high nickel-chromium material (XN40F) for application to the life prediction of superplastic forming (SPF) tools. An experimental test programme to characterise the high temperature cyclic elastic-plastic-creep behaviour of the material over a range of temperatures between 20°C and 900°C is described. The objective of the material testing is the development of a high temperature material model for cyclic analyses and life prediction of superplastic forming (SPF) dies for SPF of titanium aerospace components. A two-layer visco-plasticity model which combines both creep and combined isotropic-kinematic plasticity is chosen to represent the material behaviour. The process of material constant identification for this model is presented and the predicted results are compared with the rate-dependent (isothermal) experimental results. The temperature-dependent material model is furthermore applied to simulative thermo-mechanical fatigue (TMF) tests, designed to represent the temperature and stress-strain cycling associated with the most damaging phase of the die cycle. The model is shown to give good correlation with the test data, thus vindicating future application of the material model in thermo-mechanical analyses of SPF dies, for distortion and life prediction.