| In order to produce crack free metal powder compacts, the critical region of failure should be detected, so that the particular region can be strengthened during the compaction process. The finite element method, through the use of an appropriate constitutive model of the powder medium, has recently been used as an efficient design tool. The accuracy of this method highly depends on the faithfulness of the constitutive model and the quality of the material parameter set. Furthermore, in order for the simulation results to be reliable, they should be experimentally validated on real parts featuring density variations. Hence, the main concerns are the development of a standard calibration procedure for the cap material model as well as the development of a reliable technique for the experimental validation of the powder compaction simulation results. A FC-0208 automotive main bearing cap was compacted to investigate the microstructure changes at different locations within the parts. Measurements of the pore volume fraction, pore size, pore nearest neighbor, pore aspect ratio, and grain size were performed after compaction and sintering for the MBC. A finite element model for the compaction and monotonic performance of the bearing cap was developed to study the density distribution and the performance of the bearing cap during monotonic loading respectively. The image analysis methodology and monotonic load testing was created to measure density in the main bearing cap and to predict the critical location of failure respectively, and to validate the finite element model results. A comparison between the experiment and model for determining the performance of the bearing cap was carried out such that the model predicts the damage state during loading of the bearing cap. |
