VALIDATION OF FINITE-ELEMENT CODES FOR PREDICTION OF MACHINING DISTORTIONS IN FORGINGS

When a forging is machined to its net shape, unacceptably large distor tions can occur if the final part shape is complex. Such distortions c an be predicted with the application of the finite-element method. How ever, numerical errors associated with the finite element technique ca n render such predictions unreliable. This paper presents benchmark pr oblems for verifying the accuracy of machining distortions predicted b y any prospective finite-element code. Also, a comparison between two industry-standard general-purpose codes, ANSYS and ABAQUS, is presente d.