Mechanical, thermal and physical coupling methods in FE analysis of metal forming processes

The thermal and mechanical equations for large deformations occuring in metal forming processes are recalled. The finite element approaches for viscoplastic or for elastic viscoplastic materials are presented briefly. The coupling of the previous equations with those describing the evolution of physical internal parameters is analysed. A compact form of the physical and mechanical equation is used to consider any time integration method. The micro-macro approach is an alternate way to introduce physical phenomena. This methodology is illustrated with the problem of texture evolution during forming of anisotropic materials. Finally the feasability of the inverse method for various types of coupling is investigated, with application to the computation of parameters defining the mechanical, thermal and physical behaviour of the material.