Numerical Simulation of Ti/Al Bimetal Composite Fabricated by Explosive Welding

Abstract

In this paper, a 2D numerical model that is more physically realistic was established to simulate the complete process of Ti/Al explosive welding. Basing on the ANSYS/AUTODYN software package, the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) and arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) were used for running this simulation. The numerical model can capture the typical physics in the explosive welding process, including the expansion of explosives, flyer plate bending, the impact of metal plates, jetting, and the wavy interface. The variable physical parameters during the explosive welding process were discussed. Most parts of the jet originated from the aluminum plate. According to the model, the jet velocity reached 7402 m/s. The pressure at the detonation point was too small to make the two plates to bond. The pressure could reach an order of magnitude of 107 kPa when the detonation energy tended to be stable and was far more than the yield strength of both materials, which resulted in an obvious narrow region of plastic strain emerging close to the collision zone. The signs of shear stresses between the two plates were the opposite. The interface morphology changed from straight to wave along the propagation of the detonation wave in the simulation, which was consistent with the experimental results.

Keywords

• explosive welding
• numerical simulation
• Ti/Al bimetal composite
• smoothed particle hydrodynamics