Abstract
This work applies the Buckingham Π theorem from dimensional analysis on superplastic processes in order to obtain laws of behaviour in a simple way. For this reason, a mathematical background is developed. The particular behaviour of superplastic materials makes it necessary to adapt the way in which these are treated, modelling them by a viscosity function of the strain-rate. Then, dimensional analysis is applied on a set of free-inflation tests in order to obtain a formula that defines the forming time as single function of geometric and material variables. Dimensional analysis allows us to reduce the number of variables to analyse from six to only three. Finally, two different forming time estimators are compared to measure the accuracy of our method, showing a significant improvement over previous methods.
Highlights
Superplastic forming (SPF) is a manufacturing technique that allows us to form complex shape parts in a single operation [1]
Certain alloys like Ti-6Al-4V allow us to combine superplastic forming with diffusion bonding [7], producing monolithic parts at once, saving costs in terms of weight and time
The application of the Dimensional Analysis (DA) and making use of the Buckingham Π theorem was introduced as an accurate tool for the study of superplastic processes
Summary
Superplastic forming (SPF) is a manufacturing technique that allows us to form complex shape parts in a single operation [1]. It is widely used in the automotive [2] and the aerospace [3,4]. Certain alloys like Ti-6Al-4V allow us to combine superplastic forming with diffusion bonding [7], producing monolithic parts at once, saving costs in terms of weight and time For this reason, this procedure has been successfully utilised to manufacture wing leading-edges [8] and compressor blades [9]. SPF is an active topic of study, aiming to obtain better material characterisations and process optimisation
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