j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 1 9 8 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 463–470

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmatprotec

3D FEM simulation of the multi-stage forging process

of a gas turbine compressor blade

Cheng Lv a , Liwen Zhang a,∗ , Zhengjun Mu a , Qingan Tai b , Quying Zheng b

a School of Materials Science and Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, PR China
b Shenyang Liming Aero-Engine Group Corporation, Shenyang 110043, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Due to the complicated three-dimensional geometry and the non-steady state contact
Received 2 December 2005 between the workpiece and the die surface, the simulation of blade forging process
Received in revised form performed so far has been restricted to two-dimensional plane-strain problems or sim-
12 April 2007 plified three-dimensional deformational cases throughout which some simplifications and
Accepted 25 July 2007 assumptions are employed. This study attempts to simulate an entire forging process of a
gas turbine compressor blade from a cylindrical billet to a complicated product, using 3D
rigid-viscoplastic FEM. Simulation successfully predicts a complete load/time diagram and
Keywords: deformed configurations on the preforming stages and the following forging stage. Mean-
Gas turbine compressor blade while, the distribution of different field-variables, such as strain and temperature, were
Multi-stage forging obtained. On the basis of these results, a change of the original forging stage is recom-
3D rigid-viscoplastic FEM mended. The validity of simulation results was verified through comparisons with industrial
trials, which were conducted on the same process parameters as those in the simulation. The
simulation results may be effectively applied to other types of three-dimensional turbine
blade forging processes.
© 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The compressor blade is one of the most important mechan-
ical components in gas turbine engine, which plays an
important role in energy transformation, and it requires high-
geometrical precision and mechanical properties due to its
severe working conditions. Forging of compressor blade is a
complex operation to describe quantitatively due to the sen-
sitivity of the properties of the material to process conditions
and the complicated shapes of the products, which have a
twist shape from the root to the end of a blade. To enable the
manufacture of compressor blade with suitable mechanical
properties and correct shape to be undertaken in a scientific
manner, it is necessary to understand material flow, strain,
strain rate, forging load and temperature histories during the
deformation process. To achieve the above goals, the finite ele-
ment method can be used for its ability to account for the
complex tool/workpiece interactions and boundary conditions
that would occur during the manufacturing processes.
Until now, in applying FEM to gain an understanding of
the thermomechanical characteristics of blade forging, most
of the simulation work performed has been treated as two-
dimensional plane-strain problems (Morita et al., 1991; Dung
and Mahrenholtz, 1982; Kang et al., 1990; Soltsni et al., 1994),
which inevitably suffer from a lack of practical significance.
However, blade forging is a three-dimensional process because
of its twist shape from the root to the end and uneven body at
different positions. Therefore, a full three-dimensional sim-
ulation is required in order to study the material flow in all
the regions and obtain more realistic information to improve

∗
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 411 84706087; fax: +86 411 84708116.
E-mail address: commat@student.dlut.edu.cn (L. Zhang).
0924-0136/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2007.07.032
464 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 1 9 8 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 463–470

the precision of die design. In an early exercise with a sim- The equations given above can be solved by a variational
ple geometry, Argyris et al. (1985) analyzed the blade forging principle expressed as
process using the three-dimensional finite element method   
by considering the thermal effect, but interface friction was
ı˘ = ¯ ε̄˙ dV + k
ı ε̇V ıε̇V dV − F̄i ıvi ds = 0 (6)
omitted. Isothermal forging of a turbine blade was analyzed V V Sf
by Yang et al. (1993) using 3D rigid-viscoplastic FEM. In the
simulation, the interface friction was included and remeshing where
was carried out using a modular remeshing scheme. However,  
3/2(ij ij )
1/2 1/2
the arc transition between the tenon and the body on the die ¯ = , ε̄˙ = 2/3(ε̇ij ε̇ij ) (7)
cavity was simplified with a right angle, which is far from the
actual situation in the blade forging process. Zhan et al. (Zhan In the above equations, , ˙ ε̇V and   are the effective stress,
¯ ε̄, ij
et al., 1999, 2001; Yang et al., 2002; Liu et al., 2002) simulated effective strain rate, volumetric strain rate and deviatory
precision forging process of a compressor blade by 3D FEM, but stress components, respectively. V the volume of the billet,
the preforming stages were not considered in the analysis. Sf the force surface, Sv the velocity surface, F̄i the traction
In the present work, a three-dimensional finite element stress and k is the large positive constant to penalize volume
analysis of non-isothermal forging process of a gas turbine change.
compressor blade is carried out, using 3D rigid-viscoplastic Eq. (6) can be converted into non-linear algebraic equations
FEM. This simulation includes all the deforming stages from by utilizing the standard FEM discretization procedure. Due to
the initial cylindrical billet to the final blade and considers the the non-linearity involved in the material properties and fric-
frictional condition and practical arc transition between the tional contact conditions, the solution is obtained iteratively.
tenon and the body. The deformational characteristics of the This rigid-viscoplastic material model is coupled with a
blade forging process are revealed and an optimized forging heat transfer model, expressed by the energy-balance equa-
scheme is recommended. As an experimental validation of tion:
the simulation results, forging trials of the compressor blade
have been carried out under the same forging conditions as (kT,i ),i + ṙ − (cP Ṫ) = 0 (8)
those in the simulation.
where k denotes thermal conductivity, T the temperature, ṙ the
2. Simulation details heat generation rate,  the specific density and cP is the specific
heat. The first-term (kT,i ),i and the third-term cP Ṫ represent
In the present work, the DEFORM 3D software package based the heat transfer rate and the internal energy rate, respec-
on an updated Lagrangian description was employed to simu- tively. The rate of the heat generation in the deforming billet
late the blade forging process. To allow the focus to be placed due to plastic deformation is given below:
on the thermomechanical effects on the workpiece, a rigid-
viscoplastic material formulation coupled with a heat transfer ṙ = ˛¯ ε̄˙ (9)
formulation was used for the workpiece. The governing equa-
tions that have to be satisfied during the forging process are where ˛ represents the fraction of mechanical energy con-
as follows: verted to heat, usually assumed to be 0.9. The temperature
distribution of the workpiece and/or dies can be obtained read-
ily by solving the energy balance equation rewritten, by using
• Equilibrium condition:
the weighted residual method, as

ij,i = 0 (1)    
kT,i ıT,i dV + cP ṪıT dV − ˙ dV =
˛¯ ε̄ıT qn ıT ds (10)
V V V S
• Compatibility condition:

1 where qn is the heat flux normal to the boundary surface,

ε̇ij = (vi,j + vj,i ) (2) including heat loss to the environment and friction heat
2
between two contacting objects. By applying the FEM dis-
cretization procedure, Eq. (10) can also be converted into
• Constitutive relation:
a system of algebraic equations and solved by a standard
  method. In practice, the solutions of mechanical and thermal
3ε̄˙
ε̇ij = ij (3) problems are coupled in a staggered manner.
2¯
In the blade forging process, there are four stages dur-
ing deforming, namely upsetting, heading, busting, and final
• Incompressibility condition:
forging stage, illustrated in Fig. 1. Through the first three pre-
forming operations, a cylindrical billet is formed to a preform
ε̄˙ kk = 0 (4)
with a head. After preforming, the workpiece is cooled in air
to room temperature, the surface is descaled, blanks are then
• Boundary condition:
sand blasted and reheated up to the forging temperature with
a soaking time to uniform the thermal distribution inside the
ij nij = F̄i on Sf , vi = v̄i on Sv (5) entire material volume. Then, the forging operation is con-
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 1 9 8 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 463–470 465

Fig. 1 – Forming stages of the blade manufacturing process: (a) initial billet; (b) upsetting preform; (c) heading preform; (d)
busting preform; (e) final forging.

Fig. 2 – Flow stress curves under different temperature: (a) 950 ◦ C, (b) 1000 ◦ C, (b) 1100 ◦ C and (d) 1150 ◦ C.

ducted to forming the final product. In order to understand The process conditions in the FE-simulation are given
and analyze the actual blade forging process, all stages are in Table 1. Due to high temperature and large deforma-
simulated, including the heat transfer from furnace to dies tion in the process, elastic deformation is negligible and all
prior to forging. the dies are considered as rigid bodies. The friction at the
The material for the billet was a new stainless steel, which workpiece–tooling interfaces was assumed to be of shear type,
was developed for the production of gas turbine compressor
blade. During hot deformation of the workpiece, strain, strain
rate and temperature have a great influence on the flow and
behavior of the material, which can be expressed as the equa-
Table 1 – Process conditions for FE-simulation
tion:
Preforming stages Forging stage

¯ = (ε̄,
¯ ε̄, ˙ T) (11) Initial workpiece 1160 1160
temperature (◦ C)
Tool temperature (◦ C) 20 300
In this paper, the material flow behavior can be realized by
Environment 20 20
inputting the flow stress data, gained in the thermomechani-
temperature (◦ C)
cal simulation experiments. Fig. 2 shows the flow stress curves Friction factor 0.7 0.3
under different temperature.
466 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 1 9 8 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 463–470

Fig. 3 – FEM simulation for preforming operations: (a) initial billet; (b) upsetting preform; (c) heading preform; (d) busting
perform.

Table 2 – Thermal physical properties

Thermal conductivity (N/(s ◦ C)) 36.5
Heat capacity (N/(mm2 ◦ C)) 7.74
Heat transfer coefficient between 11
workpiece and die (N/(s mm ◦ C))
Convection coefficient to 0.02
environment (N/(s mm ◦ C))
Emissivity 0.8

Fig. 5 – Temperature distribution inside the section B–B at

Fig. 4 – Flow net pattern at various stages: (a) initial billet; the end of preforming operations.
(b) upsetting preform; (c) heading preform; (d) busting
perform.

3. Results and discussion

expressed as 3.1. Analysis of preforming operations

fS = mk (12) Fig. 3 illustrates the stages of deformation during the pre-

forming process. Due to the large deformation occurring in
where fS is the frictional stress, k the shear yield stress and m the vicinity of head, the FEM mesh degenerate severely dur-
is the friction factor. In the preforming operations, a friction
factor of 0.7 is applied to model the dry forging conditions.
While, the friction factor is assumed to be 0.3 in the following
forging stage because of the lubricated conditions between the
forging die and workpiece. During forging, the upper die speed
changes with the ram movement of mechanical press, which
can significantly affect the average strain rates and therefore
stiffness within the workpiece. To model this change in com-
pression rate, a ram-dependent die speed function is entered
into the program for the preforming and forging simulations.
A mechanical press with an effective load capacity of 25 MN is
used in the forging operation. And the press used to preform
the billet is an upsetting machine with the load capacity of
5 MN. The thermal physical properties of workpiece are given
in Table 2. Fig. 6 – Load–time curves (preforming operations).
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 1 9 8 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 463–470 467

Fig. 7 – FEM simulation for forging operation at a height reduction of: (a) 0.0 mm; (b) 29.7 mm; (c) 37.7 mm; (d) 40.1 mm.

Fig. 8 – Equivalent strain distribution inside the section C–C and D–D at the end of forging operation: (a) C–C and (b) D–D.

ing simulation. Therefore, remesh procedure is carried out The computered forming load does not exceed the effective
frequently to complete the simulation. One of the most impor- load capacity of the upsetting machine, 5 MN.
tant information in metal forming analysis is the metal flow
pattern. However, FEM meshs are not adequate for this pur- 3.2. Analysis of forging operation
pose when remeshing is involved. In order to visualize metal
flow pattern through remeshing, a procedure called flow net The deformed shapes of the blade at different stroke of forging
has been developed. Fig. 4 shows the flow net pattern of sec- operation are shown in Fig. 7. It can be seen that the spread of
tion A–A at different stages during the preforming process. It the blade sections resulting from height reduction takes place
is clear that high strain caused by large deformation is con- during the process. The elongation of the blade is small and
centrated in the head. This concentrated distribution of high the spread of the blade sections is almost straight so that the
strain leads the head material to be hardened and temperature use of transverse sections to study the deformed characteris-
in this region is higher than others. tics would be reasonable. The equivalent strain distributions
For the stainless steel utilized in manufacturing turbine inside the cross-section C–C and D–D at the end of forging
blades, the temperature has to be kept within narrow ranges operation are shown in Fig. 8. It can be seen that large defor-
due to material strict workability windows as well as close mation takes place in the blade body, especially in the flash
control in microstructure specifications of the final com- lands. The values of equivalent strain are found to be in the
ponent. High temperature in workpiece may induce some range of 1.33–1.61 in most parts of blade body. Relatively low
brittle phases, which can weaken the mechanical strength values of equivalent strain exist in the tenon, with the range of
and the ductility of the component during its service life. 0.578–0.756 in most part of this region. In blade forging process,
When the temperature in workpiece is lower, the forging the critical deformation is an important factor, which deter-
load may increase abruptly due to the sensitivity of mate-
rial flow strength to temperature, and internal damages of
materials like as micro-crack may occur. For the stainless
steel reported in this paper, the temperature after forging is
required to be larger than 950 ◦ C. Fig. 5 shows the temperature
distribution inside the section B–B at the end of preforming
operations. As shown in the figure, the temperature in the
majority region of the perform is 1140 ◦ C, which is higher
than 950 ◦ C. And due to the heat generation from deformation
energy and friction, there is a slight temperature rise of about
10 ◦ C in the head region compared to the initial temperature of
1160 ◦ C.
Fig. 6 shows the load–time curves on each operation for the
preforming process. It can be seen that the maximum load in
preforming process is about 700 kN, which takes place in the
upsetting operation because of high resistance of metal flow. Fig. 9 – Thermal plasticity curve of blade steel.
468 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 1 9 8 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 463–470

Fig. 10 – Temperature distribution inside the section C–C and D–D at the end of forging operation: (a) C–C and (b) D–D.

mines the degree of deformation in single step. Fig. 9 shows

the thermal plasticity curve of blade steel, which was tested
by thermal compression experiments. As shown in this figure,
the deformation limit in every heat number is about 0.7. Thus,
the equivalent strain in blade body is much higher, exceeding
the material plastic forming limit, which may induce some
forming defects.
As mentioned above, high temperature in workpiece may
induce some brittle phases, which can weaken the mechanical
strength and the ductility of the product during its service life.
Therefore, the temperature distribution in workpiece is most
significant during forging operation. Fig. 10 shows the temper-
ature distribution inside the cross-section C–C and D–D at the Fig. 11 – Load–time curve of forging operation.
end of forging operation. It is clear that there is little decline
of temperature in blade body due to the heat generation from
deformation and friction. The highest values of temperature forging stage are rather higher than the respective values. Con-
in the central zone of cross-sections are about 1170 ◦ C at the sequently, the forging process should be amended. It is clear
end of forging stage. Based on physical modeling experiments, that the large deformation could be reduced through adding a
we find that this temperature value is much higher and the preforging blow prior to finish forging and, at the same time,
mechanical strength and the ductility of the final forging part, reducing the finish forging temperature to decrease the pos-
which is forged under this temperature, are much lower for its sibility of brittle phase occurrence. Thus, current industrial
application. forging process consists of two forging steps, namely preforg-
Fig. 11 shows the load–time curve for the forging operation. ing and finish forging. And the finish forging temperature is
Here, the forging load increases abruptly due to flash forma- reduced to 1120 ◦ C.
tion. Maximum load for this finish operation is lower than Fig. 12 shows the distribution of field-variables inside sec-
20 MN, less than the effective load capacity of the mechanical tion C–C at the end of preforging operation. The values of
press, 25 MN. equivalent strain are found to be in the range of 0.422–1.07 in
the cross-section. And the highest temperature values in the
3.3. Optimization of forging operation central zone of cross-section are about 1170 ◦ C. These temper-
ature and strain values are a little higher, but do not affect the
The accurate analysis of above forging operation reveals final forging part due to the reheating and finish forging after
that the temperature and equivalent strain values after final preforging stage.

Fig. 12 – Distribution of field-variables inside section C–C at the end of preforging: (a) equivalent strain and (b) temperature.

Fig. 13 – Equivalent strain distribution inside section C–C and D–D at the end of finish forging: (a) C–C and (b) D–D.
 j o u r n a l o f m a t e r i a l s p r o c e s s i n g t e c h n o l o g y 1 9 8 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 463–470 469

Fig. 14 – Temperature distribution inside section C–C and D–D at the end of finish forging: (a) C–C and (b) D–D.

Fig. 13 shows the equivalent strain distribution inside sec-

tion C–C and D–D at the end of finish forging step. As shown in
this figure, the equivalent strain after finish forging is reduced
greatly. The values are in the range of 0.3–0.8 in the central
zone of section C–C and less values exit in the section D–D,
which are rather lower than the material plastic forming limit.
Fig. 14 shows the temperature distribution inside section C–C
and D–D at the end of finish forging. It can be seen that lit-
tle temperature change has happened compared to the initial
temperature of 1120 ◦ C, which could ensure the required qual-
ities of the final products. There is a little temperature rise of
about 20 ◦ C in the flash lands due to the severe deformation
and friction in that region. However, temperature change in
the flash was not taken into account since these portions of
materials are removed by machining after forging.
Fig. 15 – Load–time curves of optimized forging process.
Fig. 15 shows the load–time curves of optimized forging
process. It can be seen that the forging load is very low in
preforging stage and increases abruptly due to flash formation in finish forging stage is 23 MN, which is much higher than the
during the finish forging stage. Thanks to high sensitivity of maximum load during the original forging operation, but it is
flow strength to temperature, temperature reduction leads to a lower than the effective load capacity of the mechanical press
substantial increase of finish forging load. The maximum load all the time.

Fig. 16 – Products through the optimized process: (a) preforming billet; (b) preforging part; (c) finish forging part; (d) final
product.
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4. Experimental verification
After convinced by numerical simulation that the optimized
forging process can give a realistic possibility for the pro-
duction of gas turbine compressor blade, forging tests were
performed to validate the results of FE simulation. The forg-
ing process parameters are the same as those in the optimized
process. The lubricant used in the experiments was the mix-
ture of commercial grease and MoS2 . The forging tests were
conducted on a mechanical press with 25 MN load capacity
for preforging and finish forging operations. And the press
used to preform the billet was an upsetting machine with the
load capacity of 5 MN. Fig. 16 shows the geometries of a forged
blade and its preform produced with the optimized process.
Compared with the simulated results shown in Figs. 3 and 7,
the similarity of the geometry between the forging trials and
the simulation results is clearly apparent. Meanwhile, the
mechanical properties such as strength and ductility satisfy
the application requirements well, according to the testing
experiments. Thus, industrial trials show good agreements
with the FEM simulation of the blade forming process.
5. Conclusions
Using the rigid-viscoplastic finite element method, a three-
dimensional finite element analysis of non-isothermal forging
of a gas turbine compressor blade is carried out, including
all the deforming stages from the initial cylindrical billet to
the final blade. FE analysis provides detailed information on
the material flow, load, strain and temperature, which can be
incorporated into process design. The conclusions with the
finite element analysis can be summarized as follows:
(1) At the end of preforming operations, the temperature in
most parts of the workpiece is 1140 ◦ C, which is higher
than the temperature corresponding to unacceptable low
temperature. At the same time, the loads during the pre-
forming operations are much lower than the effective load
capacity of upsetting machine.
(2) At the end of original forging operation, the values of
equivalent strain in most parts of blade are rather higher,
in the range of 1.33–1.61. This highly accumulated strain
exceeds the material plastic forming limit and may cause
some forming deficiencies. Due to heat generation from
deformation energy and friction, the temperature in work-
piece after forging operation is much higher than the
receivable value and may induce some brittle phases
which can weaken the mechanical strength of the com-
ponent during its service life.
(3) On the basis of the analysis results of above forging oper-
ation, an optimized forging scheme is recommended to
eliminate the strain accumulation and reduce the tem-
perature rise in the workpiece after finish forging. In the
optimized forging process, the simulation results show
that the equivalent strain and temperature are reduced
greatly and can ensure the required quality of the final
products. Industrial trials have demonstrated the validity
of simulation results.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to express their appreciation for the
financial support of the National High Technology Devel-
opment Program of China (2004AA503010) for the present
research work.
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