Numerical approach for thick plates manufacturing

The construction of increasingly powerful hydraulic plants added to the ongoing research to cut manufacturing costs, requires the power station suppliers to develop and control new production technologies without delay. Therefore ALSTOM HYDRO in a continuous effort of R*D, has turned to numerical simulation using the FORGE®2005 software to define their production process for turbine blades. Modelling the forming operation allows manufacturing difficulties and die modifications to be anticipated. We use thermo-physical measurements and the setting of thermal exchange coefficients to then simulate the blade heat treatment. The relevance of the digital approach is confirmed by comparing the numerical results to manufacturing data.