Artificial Neural Network-Based Constitutive Relationship of Inconel 718 Superalloy Construction and Its Application in Accuracy Improvement of Numerical Simulation

The application of accurate constitutive relationship in finite element simulation would significantly contribute to accurate simulation results, which play critical roles in process design and optimization. In this investigation, the true stress-strain data of an Inconel 718 superalloy were obtained from a series of isothermal compression tests conducted in a wide temperature range of 1153–1353 K and strain rate range of 0.01–10 s−1 on a Gleeble 3500 testing machine (DSI, St. Paul, DE, USA). Then the constitutive relationship was modeled by an optimally-constructed and well-trained back-propagation artificial neural network (ANN). The evaluation of the ANN model revealed that it has admirable performance in characterizing and predicting the flow behaviors of Inconel 718 superalloy. Consequently, the developed ANN model was used to predict abundant stress-strain data beyond the limited experimental conditions and construct the continuous mapping relationship for temperature, strain rate, strain and stress. Finally, the constructed ANN was implanted in a finite element solver though the interface of “URPFLO” subroutine to simulate the isothermal compression tests. The results show that the integration of finite element method with ANN model can significantly promote the accuracy improvement of numerical simulations for hot forming processes.