Numerical prediction of process-dependent properties of high-performance Ti6Al4 in LS-DYNA

In modern manufacturing processes such as hot forming or additive manufacturing, the workpiece material undergoes very complex thermomechanical load cycles. The local mechanical properties in the component are process-dependent and the result of the different micro-structure evolution mechanisms in the material. Numerical process simulation tools aim to include more and more of these mechanisms in order to improve the accuracy of the simulations. The mechanical strength of high-performance materials such as Ti-6Al-4V depends on microstructural parameters, which are influenced by the temperature and strain histories. This contribution puts forward an implementation of a new generalized internal variables material model *MAT_GENERALIZED_PHASECHANGE in LS-DYNA. The evolution of internal variables such as phase fractions, grain size and dislocation densities can be predicted by evolution equations, and combined with yield stress models taking the contribution of the phases, grain sizes (Hall-Petch effect), and the dislocation density into account to predict the resulting mechanical properties of the processed material. The benefits of the implementation in the commercial software LS-DYNA is the possibility to solve complex coupled problems. For example, the new material law can be used to simulate hybrid manufacturing processes like forging and an additional additive manufacturing process, where changes in microstructure are highly coupled and important for the part properties.