Doing More With Less: A Digital Twin of state-of-the-art and emerging high value manufacturing routes for high integrity titanium alloy components

事半功倍：用于高完整性钛合金部件的最先进和新兴高价值制造路线的数字孪生

• 批准号: EP/T024992/1
• 负责人: Martin Jackson
• 金额: $ 332.38万
• 依托单位: University of Sheffield
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FT024992%2F1
• 关键词: Doing; More; Less; Digital; Twin

Titanium alloy components are strategically important to the future UK aerospace, energy and electric vehicle sectors owing to their high strength-to-weight ratio, excellent fracture resistance and fatigue properties, and compatibility with carbon fibre composites. Current state-of-the-art titanium components are processed through complex non-linear open-die and closed-die hot forging that generates non-uniform microstructure and properties within different regions. This necessitates significantly larger geometries than the final shape to be forged before 70% of the material is machined away to retain the "optimum" microstructure and property set in the final part. This expensive and wasteful approach has led to a sector-wide effort to produce components with more homogeneous microstructures and property distributions from less material. For example, many emerging powder-derived manufacturing routes have been explored extensively. The UK developed, hybrid FAST-forge powder-derived process has shown promise over recent years to produce affordable titanium alloy components. The high-value manufacturing sector now needs the tools to objectively inform which processing route is optimum, be it state-of-the-art or emerging routes, such as FAST-forge, based on key drivers such as cost, volume, energy consumption, resource use, and in-service properties.Emerging manufacturing techniques such as precision investment casting and additive manufacturing have advantages over forging in terms of material and energy usage and speed of manufacture, but they cannot produce the high integrity properties required for many structure-critical applications. For this century, forging is here to stay, but it needs to have a 21st century makeover to be more agile, economical, less wasteful with better performing products. There is a realisation in industry that in order for UK manufacturing to remain internationally competitive, we need rapid and intelligent process support. For high integrity products there is a drive to create a digital twin of the physical forging process and to empower UK manufacturers to provide a (1) more efficient, less conservative and affordable process route and (2) improved and more consistent properties to reduce design conservatism. This is now possible, owing to recent improvements in control, sensor technology and non-destructive testing characterisation methods, coupled with improved physical understanding and modelling of the material behaviour.The virtual world of a digital twin that incorporates lubrication, tool wear, temperature, and press dynamics, as well as through-process microstructure and property evolution, will be the closest analogy to an equivalent real-world system or physical twin. We now have the infrastructure and data analysis approaches to create this virtual digital twin. Firstly, this will inform industry on the optimum processing route (i.e. state-of-the-art or FAST-forge) for a given component, enable the assessment of process route and allow the whole supply chain to be involved in the early stages of component design (when changes can still be made cheaply through the virtual digital twin). Secondly, it will enable real-time production decisions, instant troubleshooting and validation for future high integrity forged titanium alloy components, using physics-based models and data analytics. From a sustainability standpoint, a digital twin of the microstructure during forging and press performance will enable the supply chain to do more with less material by providing higher confidence in location-specific properties or utilising the press more efficiently (i.e., using less energy) to achieve the property goals of the design. Creating a digital twin of forging, which is accessible to the whole supply chain will consolidate the UK's world class reputation in the manufacturing of high integrity products and lead to significant business investment.

由于其高强度重量比、优异的抗断裂和疲劳性能以及与碳纤维复合材料的相容性，钛合金部件对未来的英国航空航天、能源和电动汽车行业具有重要的战略意义。目前最先进的钛部件是通过复杂的非线性开模和闭模热锻加工而成的，在不同的区域内产生不均匀的微观结构和性能。这需要比最终形状更大的几何形状，在70%的材料被加工掉之前，以保持最终零件的“最佳”微观结构和性能。这种昂贵而浪费的方法导致整个行业都在努力用更少的材料生产具有更均匀微观结构和性能分布的组件。例如，许多新兴的粉末衍生制造路线已经被广泛探索。近年来，英国开发的混合快速锻造粉末衍生工艺显示出生产经济实惠的钛合金部件的希望。高价值制造业现在需要工具来客观地告知哪个加工路线是最佳的，无论是最先进的还是新兴的路线，如FAST-forge，基于关键驱动因素，如成本、体积、能源消耗、资源使用和服务属性。新兴的制造技术，如精密熔模铸造和增材制造，在材料和能源使用以及制造速度方面比锻造有优势，但它们不能生产出许多结构关键应用所需的高完整性性能。在本世纪，锻造将继续存在，但它需要进行21世纪的改造，以更灵活、更经济、更少浪费，生产出性能更好的产品。工业界已经认识到，为了使英国制造业保持国际竞争力，我们需要快速和智能的流程支持。对于高完整性产品，有动力创建物理锻造过程的数字孪生，并使英国制造商能够提供(1)更高效，更少保守和负担得起的工艺路线；(2)改进和更一致的性能，以减少设计保守性。由于最近控制、传感器技术和无损检测表征方法的改进，加上对材料行为的物理理解和建模的改进，现在这是可能的。数字孪生体的虚拟世界包含润滑、工具磨损、温度和压力动态，以及整个过程的微观结构和性能演变，将是与等效的现实世界系统或物理孪生体最接近的类比。我们现在有基础设施和数据分析方法来创建这个虚拟数字双胞胎。首先，这将告知行业给定组件的最佳加工路线（即最先进或快速锻造），使工艺路线评估成为可能，并允许整个供应链参与组件设计的早期阶段（此时仍然可以通过虚拟数字孪生进行低成本的更改）。其次，它将使用基于物理的模型和数据分析，为未来的高完整性锻造钛合金部件实现实时生产决策、即时故障排除和验证。从可持续发展的角度来看，锻造过程中的微观结构和压力机性能的数字孪生将使供应链能够用更少的材料做更多的事情，为特定位置的性能提供更高的信心，或更有效地利用压力机（即使用更少的能源）来实现设计的性能目标。创建一个锻造的数字孪生，整个供应链都可以访问，将巩固英国在高完整性产品制造方面的世界一流声誉，并带来大量商业投资。

项目成果

In-Process Fingerprints of Dissimilar Titanium Alloy Diffusion Bonded Layers from Hole Drilling Force Data

钻孔力数据中异种钛合金扩散连接层的过程指纹

• DOI: 10.3390/met12081353
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Metals
• 影响因子: 2.9
• 作者: Graves A

Effect of processing route on ballistic performance of Ti-6Al-4V armour plate

• DOI: 10.1080/02670836.2023.2229175
• 发表时间: 2023-06
• 期刊: Materials Science and Technology
• 影响因子: 1.8
• 作者: B. Fernández Silva;Oliver Levano Blanch;Kam Sagoo;M. Jackson

Comparison Of Field-Assisted Sintering Technology (FAST) And Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) For The Diffusion Bonding Of Dissimilar Titanium Alloy Powders

场辅助烧结技术 (FAST) 与热等静压 (HIP) 异种钛合金粉末扩散连接的比较

• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: World PM 2022 Congress Proceedings
• 作者: Blanch O.L.

Rapid acquisition of digital fingerprints of Ti-6Al-4V macrotexture from machining force measurement data

从加工力测量数据快速获取 Ti-6Al-4V 宏观纹理的数字指纹

• DOI: 10.1016/j.matchar.2023.113550
• 发表时间: 2024
• 期刊: Materials Characterization
• 影响因子: 4.7
• 作者: Childerhouse T

MulTi-FAST: A Machinability Assessment of Functionally Graded Titanium Billets Produced from Multiple Alloy Powders.

• DOI: 10.3390/ma15093237
• 发表时间: 2022-04-30
• 期刊: Materials (Basel, Switzerland)