NONLINEAR OPTIMIZATION-BASED DESIGN OF RAM VELOCITY PROFILES FOR ISOTHERMAL FORGING

The development of good material models, accurate nonlinear finite ele ment codes, and computer-controlled presses make practical the applica tion of control techniques to metal forging. This paper considers the open-loop problem of selecting a nominal ram velocity profile to produ ce a desired microstructure, given a specified die and preform geometr y and forging temperature. Two approaches for doing so are applied to a simple, but representative problem. The first is based on classical numerical optimization techniques. The second is based on inverse neur al networks and offers potential savings in critical computations. Sim ulation studies for the two methods show good results.