Mesoscopic model: advanced simulation of microforming processes

Micro technology, one of the future key technologies, is gaining increasing interest in forming community. Up to now, most of the smallest parts are being manufactured by machining technologies well suited for the production of small series. Forming technology instead seems to be more suited to meet the demands of serial production due to its high production output. In the field of microforming technology, an important aspect concerning the process layout as well as its optimisation is the ability to predict the forming processes by simulation methods. When scaling down process dimensions to microscale, size-effects appear and have to be considered. In this study, fundamentals have been developed to built up a so-called mesoscopic model taking into account the occurring size-effects at microscale. The influence of grain size and its position are taken into account by creating a synthetic material structure and the calculation of individual material properties for each of the synthetic grains.