Improvement of life prediction in H-11 tool steel by integration of thermo-mechanical fatigue and creep damage models

In hot forging operations, the die surfaces and the nearest surface layers of the die undergo mechanical and thermal cycles which significantly influence their service life. The real thermal and mechanical cycles have been previously investigated in forging plants by measurements and numerical simulation, and a reasonable variation window of process parameters has been determined. A new simulative test applied to AISI H11 hot working die steel has been used to generate failure data in conditions similar to those of the forging dies, but under a more controlled and economical method. Fracture surfaces of specimens for different tests observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicate that both thermo-mechanical fatigue (TMF) and creep phenomena can be considered to be main damage mechanisms and their contribution to the failure differs as testing conditions vary. As a result of the experiments, the failure is affected by both thermo-mechanical cycle and resting time at high temperature. Therefore, the authors developed a new lifetime prediction model obtained by combining the damage evolution laws, at each cycle, for pure creep and pure TMF. This combination was based on the linear accumulation rule. The damage evolution law for pure creep is obtained by modifying Rabotnov’s law in order to suit the case of actual hot forging cycles, where temperature and stress vary widely. The damage evolution law for pure TMF is based on a generalization of the Wohler–Miner law. This law is modified in order to take into account the presence of thermal cycle and thermal gradient. Comparison between the experimental cycles to failure and the predicted ones was performed using tests excluded in the determination of the coefficients. The conclusion was that the accuracy of prediction appears to be quite good and that the linear accumulation and interaction of TMF and creep is confirmed.