Numerical Modelling of the Powder Metallurgical Manufacturing Chain of High Strength Sintered Gears

Abstract This paper presents a digital model for the powder metallurgical (PM) production chain of high-performance sintered gears based on an integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) platform. Discrete and finite element methods (DEM and FEM) were combined to describe the macroscopic material response to the thermomechanical loads and process conditions during the entire production process. The microstructural evolution during the sintering process was predicted on the meso-scale using a Monte-Carlo Model. The effective elastic properties were determined by a homogenization method based on modelling a representative volume element (RVE). The results were subsequently used for the FE modelling of the heat treatment process. Through the development of multi-scale models, it was possible obtain characteristics of the microstructural features. The predicted hardness and residual stress distributions allowed the calculation of the tooth root load bearing capacity of the heat-treated sintered gears.