Design of a forging processing route for a gas turbine compressor disc in IMI 834

The microstructure in all parts of a modern gas turbine compressor disc must be carefully controlled to give the optimum balance for resistance to creep and fatigue. This is particularly true for advanced titanium alloys such as IMI834. Dynamic recrystallisation during high temperature deformation and static recrystallisation and grain growth during heat treatment, all have a profound effect on the grain structure of the disc. These processes are affected by temperature, rate of deformation and various microstructural features. These may include the size and volume fraction of primary alpha particles and current beta grain size. The construction of a computer model to simulate the forging process must therefore take all these factors into account to fully simulate the mechanical and microstructural behaviour of the material during processing. This requires a complete characterisation of the material to formulate mechanical and microstructural constitutive equations for use in a visco-plastic finite element forging model. Similarly the forging equipment must be fully characterised so that forging processes can be accurately simulated. (orig.)