Abstract: Crushing and diffusion welding are two critical healing stages of interior void defects in heavy forgings. The healing result depends on many factors during the forging process, such as stress, temperature, deformation and type of material, while the void diffusion welding condition is still not well known at the present. This paper is concerned with the deformation welding condition of the closed void interface in heavy ingot during the hot forging process. A void crushing experiment is carried out to recognize the microstructure of the closed void interface. According to the healing mechanism at high temperature, a new physical simulation model is setup to study the deformation welding process of the closed void interface based on the theory of atom diffusion and the interface contact mechanics prototype. Compared with the experimental results, the influence of deformation degree, forming temperature and holding time on the welding quality is discussed, and then the deformation welding condition of closed void interface is presented. The proposed condition helps to improve forging technology and product quality. © 2011 Shanghai Jiaotong University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Key words: deformation welding condition; interior void defects; large forgings; physical simulation