Aiming at the disadvantages of low utilization ratio of steel ingot, uneven microstructure properties and long production period in the solid steel ingot forging process of heavy cylinder forgings such as reactor pressure vessel, a new shortened process using hollow steel ingot was proposed. By means of modeling of lead sample and DEFORM-3D numerical simulation, the deformation law and grain refinement behavior for 162 ton hollow steel ingot upsetting at different reduction ratios, pressing speeds and friction factors were investigated, and the formation rule of inner-wall defects in upsetting of hollow steel ingots with different shape factors was further analyzed. Simulation results show that the severest deformation occurs in the shear zone of meridian plane in the upsetting process of hollow steel ingot, and the average grain size in the shear zone is the smallest. As pressing speed increases, the forming load gradually increases and the deformation uniformity gets worse, while the average grain size decreases. An increase in friction factor can increase the peak value of effective strain, but it significantly reduces the deformation uniformity, increases the forming load and goes against grain refinement. Moreover, the four kinds of defects on the inner wall of steel ingot can be eliminated effectively by referring to the plotted defect control curve for hollow steel ingot during high temperature upsetting.
Comparison of casting and solidification of 12 tON steel ingot using two different numerical software
