Recent and future developments in finite element metal forming simulation

Abstract : After more than 40 years of development, finite element metal forming simulation has reached a high level of maturity. After a short mechanical and thermal introduction, the main scientific and technical developments are briefly described. We consider numerical issues, such as adaptive remeshing or parallel computing; coupling phenomena for a more realistic simulation, such as thermal and metallurgical coupling, with a special emphasis on modeling of microstructure evolution; the use of optimization for forming processes or for parameters identification. Finally the main potential future research fields for the next 10 years are outlined: process stability and stochastic approaches, more effective massively parallel computing and extension of the application to generate the whole “virtual factory”.